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THE 



PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 



THREE LECTURES 

DELIVERED AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMI- 
NARY, March, 1892. 




JOHN D.^VELLS, D.D, 

SENIOR PASTOR OF SOUTH THIRD STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 

BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



PHILADELPHIA: 



PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK, 

1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 



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The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



COPYRIGHT, 1893, BY 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 



All Bights Reserved, 



Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypy's and Electrotypers, Philada. 



PREFACE. 



This little volume is made up of three lectures 
delivered to the students of Princeton Theological 
Seminary in March, 1892. They are now pub- 
lished at the request of the professors who heard 
them. 

Fully recognizing their defects, I offer them as 
a contribution to a very important branch of 
pastoral service, hoping that other pastors of large 
experience may supplement them for the benefit 
of younger brethren, the salvation of souls and 
the glory of God. 

• J. D. W. 

Parsonage, Brooklyn, N. Y., 

1892. 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE I. 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SICK-BED 
AND THE DEATH-BED. 

PAGE 

Introductory ; the Mulatto Barber 11 

The Sick-bed not a Favorable Place for Finding the 

Saviour 16 

The Death-bed Different from the Sick-bed 32 

The Death of the Wicked , 38 

The Death of the Righteous 41 

LECTURE II. 

SALVATION POSSIBLE, AND IN MANY CASES 
PROBABLE, ON THE DEATH-BED. 

Tendency to Presumption or Despair 51 

Salvation is Possible 54 

The Nature of Conversion 54 

Well-authenticated Cases 57 

Young Man in the Gulf of Mexico 57 

The Dying Robber of the Gospels 59 

Wise to Speak and Pray in Desperate Cases 63 

Dr. I. S. Spencer on Delay of Conversion . ....... 64 

5 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Difference between Sick-bed and Death- bed not Clearly 

Recognized 64 

Sal vation Probable ; Household Covenant 65 

Little Children of Believing Parents 67 

Last Sermon of Spurgeon ....... 69 

Wayward Youth of Christian Parents 70 

A Personal Incident 73 

Children of Godly Parents cut off Suddenly ; the Young 

Scotchman 75 

Sons of Godly Parents going from Home 76 

Other Children of the Covenant 77 

The Young Woman in Despair 78 

A Sailor Fatally Wounded 79 

An Old Woman Brought to Christ 82 

Alexander, Condemned and Shot . . . . . 84 



LECTURE III. 

WRONG TEEATMENT OF THE SICK AND DYING; 
RIGHT TREATMENT OF THE SAME; USES THAT 
MAY BE MADE OF THEIR EXPERIENCE. 

Wrong Treatment . .-, 91 

Students of Theology Winners of Souls 91 

Physicians of the Sick and Dying 92 

Others should Remember the Weak Body ....... 96 

Haphazard Treatment of the Soul 97 

Irreligious Kindred doing Wrong 98 

Confessors of Christ doing Wrong ; a Sad Case 100 

Heaping up Teachers 104 

Riffht Treatment 106 



CONTENTS. 7 

PAGE 

A Few Well-chosen Words 106 

Form a Right Public Sentiment 107 

A Little Boy Lost and Found 107 

"Faith Cure," "Mind Cure/' |C Christian Science '' Dan- 
gerous; Send for a Physician 110 

Shall we Tell the Fatally Sick that they will Die? ... Ill 

One Counselor of the Unsaved 113 

He should Know that he is Called 113 

Let him See the Sufferer Alone 114 

Every Case a Careful Study 115 

Frequent and Short Visits 115 

Write to the Sick and Dying 116 

The Holy Spirit uses Bible Truth 117 

Hymns and Singing 119 

Narratives of Christian Experience 119 

Pray Much, and Secure Prayers of Others . • 120 

Uses of Death-bed Experiences 123 

No Uniform Rule 123 

In Exceptional Cases 324 

In Most Cases 124 

A Christian Lineage better than a Kingly 124 

Records of Conversions 125 

Conclusion 127 



LECTURE I. 

Ube Difference between tbe Sicfc=:fBeb anb 

tbe Deatb'JBeb. 



THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 



I 



LECTURE I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

COME to you, brethren, simply as a pastor. I 

hope to give you three lectures, not with the 

learning of books or of the schools — although these 

are invaluable sources of information on many 

subjects — but out of many years' experience with 

the sick and the dying. I ask you to interrupt me 

at any point in my reading of the lectures if you 

think it important to do so, or to question me at 

the close of each lecture, should it occur to you that 

anything of which I may speak requires clearer, 

fuller or different statement. 

Long before my ordination and installation I 

was drawn into the presence of the sick and the 

dying. The first encouragement I remember to 

have had in laboring for the salvation of one on a 

death-bed was in this place, while a student in this 

theological seminary. Hearing that a young mu- 
ll 



12 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

latto barber was sick and that no one called on 
him, I ventured to do so. I saw at a glance that 
there were unmistakable symptoms of pulmonary 
disease, and I determined to be frank and faithful 
in dealing with his soul. 

He was lying on his bed in full dress, with a 
guitar at his side and secular music within easy 
reach. I noticed, too, that on the fingers of one 
hand there was a profusion of rings. After a few 
words of ordinary conversation I asked if he had 
a physician. Learning that he was under the care 
of a competent man, I asked further if he had 
been told what was the nature of his sickness. He 
answered, no, but that he would like to be in- 
formed. I then felt free to ask if he wished my 
opinion, and being assured that he did, I told him 
tenderly but plainly that 1 feared his disease was 
incurable, and that I would very much like to 
know if he was prepared for the life following 
this, which was evidently very frail and uncertain. 
He replied that he had given the matter no serious 
thought, and was wholly unprepared for leaving 
the world. 

Then, as fully and as earnestly as possible, I in- 
structed him out of the Scriptures on the deceit- 
fulness and desperate wickedness of the heart ; the 



INTR OD UCTOR Y. 13 

just exposure of the unpardoned sinner to the pen- 
alty of God's law ; the necessity of the birth from 
above ; the willingness and ability of Jesus Christ 
to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by 
him; and the presence and power of the Holy 
Spirit to make the sinner a new creature in Christ 
Jesus. I told him that he must take the Saviour 
at his word, repent of his sins and believe the 
good news of salvation without money and without 
price, coming to Jesus Christ on his own invita- 
tion : " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

After prayer, and as I was leaving, I begged 
him to cast himself as he was upon the mercy of 
God in Jesus Christ ; to do it without delav, and 
to have no doubts; to confess his sinfulness and 
transgressions, and to plead for the salvation that 
would certainly come to him with the knowledge 
and belief that the blood of Jesus Christ the Son 
of God cleanseth us from all sin. 

Being very anxious for him, I called the next 
day, but before I could pass from the door of his 
room to the bed where he lay he reached out his 
hand and greeted me with words of cheerful hope. 
He assured me that he had found peace in believ- 
ing. I feared that he was mistaken — that he had 



14 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

received the Word with joy, but had no depth of 
conviction or true sorrow for sin or faith in the 
Saviour. Therefore I carefully questioned him re- 
garding his views of sin, of repentance, of the new 
birth, and of the person, the offices and the suffer- 
ings of Christ as the only Saviour of sinners. As 
the result, I could only believe, with wonder and 
gratitude, that he had indeed so quickly passed 
from death unto life. There was a change even in 
the aspect of his room and person. Old things 
had passed away ; behold ! all things had become 
new. The guitar and music and rings had disap- 
peared, though I had not said a word about them. 
Other persons of larger experience than myself 
were taken to see and converse with him. All 
were constrained to believe that the change was 
real and saving. The effect on the condition of 
his health was remarkable. He rose from his bed, 
lived through the spring and summer, and late in 
the fall it pleased the Saviour to call him home. 
The day before his departure, I said to him, 
" James, you are near the grave ; does it seem dark 
and forbidding to you?" He answered pleasantly, 
"I am looking beyond the grave, and there I see 
nothing but light ; I am not afraid of death and 
the grave." 



INTR OJD UCTOR Y. 1 5 

His death was very peaceful. There was no 
cloud upon his reason and no darkness in his soul. 
With an unshaken trust in the Lord Jesus Christ 
he entered the river, and found the everlasting 
arms about him all the w r ay over.* 

My close connection with the case of this humble 
barber has had its influence upon my treatment of the 
sick and dying during all these later years. With 
hundreds I have gone as far as possible in their 
drawing near to the grave. From the bed-sides 
of many who were sick not unto death I have come 
back a sad witness, as their after-life unmistakably 
proved, that their good resolutions were as the morn- 
ing cloud and the early dew. An interest ofttimes 
growing to fascination has kept me near the suffer- 
ers rather to help than to see and hear. Some of 
the rarest scenes this side of heaven are in the rooms 
of sickness and death. Others are too appalling to 
admit of description. 

The results of observation and reflection in many 
and varying circumstances can hardly fail to be 
useful to the living, and especially to those who 
expect to minister in the pulpit and the private 
house. Some of these results, verified by confer- 

* See tract, James the Barber, No. 673, published by the 
American Tract Society many years ago. 



16 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

ence with other pastors, I have recorded, and hope 
to make known to you. Cases of exceptional 
interest have compelled me to change my views re- 
garding the possibility, and even probability, of 
salvation coming, by God's blessing, to those who 
are sick and soon to die, when they who watch for 
their souls are wise and faithful. For this reason 
I ask a hearing from you, dear brethren, who are 
preparing for the sacred office of the Christian 
ministry and the responsible work of pastors. I 
am to speak especially, though not exclusively, of 
those who are believed to be without Christ when 
they fall sick or are fatally hurt. At best their 
condition is desolate in the extreme. Some are sud- 
denly bereft of reason ; others are stupefied by nar- 
cotics or excited by fever or stimulants. The Ad- 
versary may assail them with all his subtlety, malig- 
nity and might because he sees that he has but a 
short time. Possibly they may be cut off from all 
communication with those w T ho would gladly point 
and lead them to Christ. By these and, it may be, 
other difficulties they are beset. Left to them- 
selves, they are in danger of becoming victims of 
fatal delusions. If they have many teachers and 
conflicting counsels, they can hardly fail to be con- 
fused and distracted. They may not have a single 



THE SICK-BED. 17 

competent and faithful guide, and, failing to lay 
hold on eternal life, at last die in their sins. 

But I firmly and gladly believe that many sin- 
ners are called and justified and saved on beds of 
death. In the fond hope that the number may be 
largely increased by God's blessing on wise and 
earnest efforts of Christian ministers and others, I 
ask to be heard here, where, fifty years ago, I sat 
with many others at the feet of Dr. Archibald 
Alexander, Dr. Samuel Miller, Dr. Charles Hodge 
and Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander, all of blessed 
memory. 

The main subject of this lecture is The Sick-Bed 
and The Death-Bed, with the difference between 
them in relation to salvation. 

Whatever mav be the nature of sickness, the 
hand of God is in it. Second causes, with which 
we and others have so much to do, are not bevond 
the control of the Great First Cause. Malarial 
and all other diseases, with calamities of every 
kind, are subject to the divine will. And the liv- 
ing, exalted Christ is given to be Head over all 
things to the Church. This great truth ought to 
be recognized and prized more than it is. What 
can be more comforting when sickness or peril 
comes to ourselves? So, too, it is our encourage- 



18 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

ment in efforts for the salvation of others who 
are or seem to be not far from death. Yet truth 
requires me to say that a sick-bed is a most unfavor- 
able place for laying hold on eternal life. 

To the proof of this I ask your earnest attention. 

1. The invitations and promises of the Bible are 
addressed mainly to persons supposed to be in 
health. 

The young are expected to remember their Cre- 
ator in the days of their youth, while the evil days 
come not, nor the years draw nigh when they shall 
severally say, " I have no pleasure in them." These 
" evil days " come sooner or later, with bodily weak- 
ness and mental distress. If greatly delayed, they 
come at last, in many if not most cases, with the 
decay and depression of old age. It is a fact 
abundantly verified that few turn to the Lord and 
find the strong consolations of good hope after the 
high meridian of life. "I love them that love me, 
and those that seek me early shall find me." This 
sweet assurance of personal Wisdom is in perfect 
keeping with what Jesus said long after, taking 
little children to his arms: "Suffer the little chil- 
dren to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of 
such is the kingdom of God. ?; 

2. The revealed plan for saving the lost sup- 



THE SICK-BED. 19 

poses them, for the most part, gathered in places 
where the word of salvation is publicly heralded. 
So it was on the day of Pentecost, when three 
thousand were added to the Church ; and a little 
after, when other thousands swelled the number of 
disciples. 

God's true ministers are ambassadors for Christ. 
They are messengers, heralds, authorized and com- 
manded to make known the terms of peace, to pub- 
lish the glad tidings of great joy. Of course they 
are required to preach the gospel from house to 
house as well as in public places ; to single individ- 
uals, young and old, as they have opportunity. 
Yet their great commission supposes them to have 
access to the multitudes where they are gathered 
together, and not chiefly in rooms darkened by 
sickness. It is true that large numbers of the un- 
saved gather on funeral occasions in private houses 
or places of public worship, out of respect for their 
fellows whose bodies are about to be buried, or 
from sympathy w T ith the afflicted, or from a morbid 
curiosity, and on these occasions the gospel may be 
faithfully and earnestly preached. But I believe 
that saving benefits rarely follow. A pastor of 
great devotion and large experience has left his tes- 
timony that he never knew a sinner to be awakened 



20 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

and brought to Christ as the result of attendance 
upon a funeral service. His explanation is this : 
While it is ever true that God waits to be gracious 
and has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, it 
is also true that he will not suffer himself to be dis- 
honored, and the gospel of his grace neglected, by 
those who will not meet him in his house on ordi- 
nary occasions, but who are not willing to absent 
themselves from services for the burial of the dead, 
for reasons already given. 

It has been my aim throughout my ministry to 
make funeral services helpful to the living for the 
consolation of the bereaved and the salvation of 
the lost. In a single case, conducting the service 
for the burial of a merchant who had taken his 
own life, I had reason to hope that one of his 
salesmen was savingly impressed by the words 
spoken and the awful solemnity of the occasion. 
He was received into the communion of our 
church on confession of Christ, but after some 
years of consistent living: in connection with us he 
disappeared, and we know not where he is, if he is 
still among the living.* 

*Since delivering this lecture I have heard of an eminent 
pastor, whose name I do not feel at liberty to give, who thinks 
that under his ministry many have been won to Christ by the 
gospel preached on funeral occasions. 



THE SICK-BED. 21 

3. Persons to whom the gospel comes with sav- 
ing power are supposed to be in circumstances 
favorable to active and grateful service to their new 
Master. 

Thus, standing idle in the market-place at any 
hour, they are called to w r ork in the vineyard of the 
Lord and receive the wages that he never fails to 
give to those who serve him. 

Entrusted with talents one or many, they are to 
use them for increase, that they may give account 
with joy, and not with grief, and have rule over 
cities according to their several ability. 

Engaged in the lawful work of their farms or 
merchandise, or even satisfied with social delights 
in their families, they are called to a feast, "a 
great supper," by One who puts no hindrance in the 
way of honorable pursuits and domestic happiness, 
but by his gracious feasts of love prepares his guests 
for active service and large rewards. 

In this and other parables of our Lord there is 
no suggestion of sickness and the interruption of 

CO 

the work of life. 

4. It is an historical fact that the family of God 
on earth has its chief increase from those who are 
strong and in health. Under the ministry of Christ 
and those who served him in the early years of this 



22 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

ministration of the Spirit, there were many in- 
stances of individuals, whose names are preserved in 
the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, turning to 
the Lord. But they were not persons subdued to 
sobriety and unworldliness by sickness, possibly with 
death in near prospect. The miracles of healing 
wrought by Jesus were largely meant to show that 
the Son of Man had power on earth to forgive sins 
and to prepare witnesses who would show forth the 
praises of him who had not merely healed their 
sickness, but called them from death unto life. 

When the Holy Ghost was given to the eleven 
and their associates, godly men and women, a way 
was soon made for them to the people of Samaria 
and Csesarea, of Antioch and the cities of Asia, of 
Macedonia and Achaia and other parts of Europe. 

To this day, as the so-called " sacramental host," 
under the commission and command of our Lord, 
we are required to put on the panoply of God, to 
fight our enemies, which are also his, and to go 
forth, taking possession of villages, cities, conti- 
nents, the world, in the name of our Master. 

In a large view, it seems almost as if the God of 
salvation lost sight of the sick-bed in seeking 
children for his household on the earth. 

5. In further proof that the bed of sickness and 



THE SICK-BED. 23 

death is not a favorable place for finding the sal- 
vation of God, we should keep in mind the nature 
of the gospel. 

It is the good news of salvation by faith in Jesus 
Christ. But it is also a collection of precious truths 
to be learned, believed and lived. They relate to 
the being, the character and the perfections of God ; 
to the spirituality of his law ; to the person, offices 
and redemptive work of God's dear Son, our Lord 
Jesus Christ ; to the person and work of the Holy 
Spirit, to whom it belongs to convict us of sin, to 
quicken us together with Christ and to persuade and 
enable us to embrace him as he is offered to us in 
the gospel. 

Here, therefore, is a call for sinful man to hear, 
learn, believe and practice the truth. Happily, 
his doing this does not depend on the strength of 
his intellect. I knew a young man, hardly half- 
witted, whose whole nature seemed to be demoral- 
ized, if not demonized, who was brought to the 
Saviour's feet and service under the ministry of 
young Mr. Malcom, a student of this seminary 
while I was here, and made eminently helpful in a 
great revival that resulted in the salvation of many 
souls. 

Still, it remains obviously true that persons 



24 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

weakened, confused and sometimes demented by- 
diseases of the body or tortured by severe pains 
are not in a favorable condition to receive instruc- 
tion, or even to listen to the most winsome invita- 
tions that can be breathed into their ears. 

6. A word should be added here about the con- 
nection of the body and the mind. They constitute 
one person. Death parts them, but only for a sea- 
son. Whatever the change, they will be reunited 
in the resurrection at the last clay. Until death 
they are held together by a tie never laid bare by 
the surgeon's scalpel. Loosen the " silver cord " 
and the body returns to the earth as it was, and. the 
spirit returns unto God who gave it. Still, person- 
ality is not destroyed, although it is not what it will 
be when the body is raised and suited to its new 
conditions- — in light or darkness, with Christ where 
he is, or severed from hirn by choice and by his 
righteous judgment. 

How profound, therefore, the mystery of the 
union of body and spirit during this mortal life ! 
"A sound mind in a sound body" has grown into 
a proverb. Its truth should arrest and hold the 
attention of everv one who watches for souls, and 
of all who are yet to find the eternal life in Jesus 
Christ or die in their sins. 



THE SICK-BED. 25 

There are some sicknesses and hurts by which the 
nerves of sensation are so tortured that the sufferer 
cries out in his a^ony and cannot order his thoughts 
as he would. The tenderest ministry of kindred 
and pastor utterly fails to find in such a time a 
convenient season for urging or giving heed to the 
claims of the Saviour. The patient Job exclaimed, 
"He breaketh me with breach upon breach; he 
runneth upon me like a giant." 

There are depressing diseases by which the powers 
of life are weakened almost to extinction. The 
blood flows with feeble current through arteries 
and veins. It may be vitiated by unhealthful se- 
cretions from within or by poisons from without. 
The lips lose their color and the eyes their lustre. 
The incubus of unnatural sleep falls upon the pa- 
tient, and his soul dwells in darkness. He forgets 
to eat his daily bread. You try in vain to rouse 
him by the good news of salvation or by any other 
tidings, and in this condition his body may sleep 
its last sleep. 

Supposing him to live, it is well if the shadow of 
an oppressive melancholy does not fall upon him. 
In his brightest moments the hope of any change 
for the better mav die in his heart. I have known 
Christians of large experience, in these trying cir- 



2G THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

cum stances, compelled to say that if their salvation 
depended upon the putting forth of any effort to 
receive the gospel, they must perish. They could 
only await the issue of their sickness without fear, 
knowing whom they had believed, and persuaded 
that he was able to keep that which they had com- 
mitted unto him against the day of their departure 
and the time of his second coming. Indeed, I 
have been in this condition myself. 

Some diseases excite and exhilarate. Pulmonary 
affections and many fevers are apt to do this. The 
circulation is quickened. The brain and the whole 
nervous system are roused to unwonted activity. 
The mind may be surcharged with thoughts that do 
not obey the laws of reason. The wildest delirium 
often follows, and the patient lives for the time in 
a world to which the most intimate friends can 
gain no access. It is painful to witness the wan- 
derings of the mind even when you have reason to 
believe that the life is hid with Christ in God, for 
sometimes they seem to indicate a character the 
very opposite of that which you supposed belonged 
to the sufferer. It is more than painful — even ap- 
palling — to know that in these circumstances per- 
sons who have shown no sigms of an interest in the 
Saviour apparently become his loving disciples, and 



THE SICK-BED. 27 

yet with returning health retain no recollection of 
their thoughts, emotions or words. Many instances 
have been related to me, by pastors and physicians, 
of persons in sickness passing through all the 
stages of awakening, conviction, conversion and 
the joyful confession of Christ as their Saviour, 
and yet, on recovering, they have been unable 
to recall the facts of the most recent past, and 
have proved by their manner of living afterward 
that no saving change had been wrought in them. 
In one case, related by the Rev. Benjamin Holt 
Rice, D. D., then pastor of the Presbyterian 
church in Princeton, a young ladv, the belle of the 
place (not Princeton), a gay and worldly person, 
was stricken with typhoid fever. Dr. Rice was a 
young pastor then, and, having been called to visit 
her, did so from day to day. At last it was 
thought she must die. Believing herself that the 
end w T as near, she called to her bedside the members 
of her family, who knew the vain life she had 
lived. She told them that she had found peace in 
believing; that she believed her sins were forgiven 
for Jesus' sake, and that she was about to depart to 
be for ever with him. Bidding them all good-bye, 
she begged them to meet her in heaven, and then 
quietly waited for the change. 



28 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

Her pastor bad no doubt that she was a sinner 
saved by grace. He parted with her in the glad 
hope of finding her at last and for ever among the 
redeemed in heaven. Calling the day after, sup- 
posing that she had passed away, he found, to his 
surprise, that the crisis of her disease had passed 
and that she was convalescent. He thought it wise, 
therefore, to discontinue his daily visits for a while. 
"When at last he called and made reference to the 
change in her views and feelings, he was appalled 
to hear from her own lips that she had not the 
slightest recollection of his visits or of anything 
she had said leading him and her family to hope 
that she was a child of God. She returned to her 
old ways of living, and not until many years had 
passed did she earnestly seek and, as she hoped, find 
the Saviour. 

On relating the particulars of this case to an 
aged Christian physician, he matched it by a sim- 
ilar case, hardly less striking, and reminded me that 
in the delirium of fever men and women of whose 
piety there is no reason to have any doubt give 
utterance to words not at all in keeping with their 
real character. 

7. I may not pass without notice in this connec- 
tion a fact which every pastor knows to his sorrow 



THE SICK-BED. 29 

— that some persons falling sick, and very anxious 
to recover, are unwilling to have a word spoken to 
them on the subject of religion, or prayer offered 
in their presence, because in such services there is a 
suggestion that they may not recover. They do 
not consider that a pastor who is wise and faithful 
knows much of the sick-room, and comes to them, 
if not hindered, only for their help. And they 
may have yet to learn that a good hope of eternal 
life is a wonderful remedial a^ent for the suffering 
body. I am sorry to add that some physicians do 
not seem to know this, and would even exclude pas- 
tors from the rooms of their patients if they could. 
So we have this anomaly — it is worse : I believe 
it is a wile of the devil — men wait for sickness, 
proposing then to give earnest heed to the truth 
of God's word and the salvation of their souls. 
Then, when sickness comes, they shrink from hear- 
ing the message of salvation or the prayer of faith, 
lest they should be compelled to think that they 
may die and that they are not prepared for the 
great change. So they rob themselves of all oppor- 
tunities of salvation. If they recover, they are in 
danger of being hardened in impenitence and un- 
belief. Dying, they go unprepared into the pres- 
ence of God. 



30 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

8. It belongs to this part of our subject to make 
brief reference to the well-known effects of medi- 
cines on persons who are sick. 

The effects vary from the extreme of insensibil- 
ity and unconsciousness to that of intense activity 
of body and vagaries of mind. 

Narcotics produce effects of the one kind, and 
stimulants those of the other. In the use of either 
— and both may be indispensable in opposite con- 
ditions of the body — the sick are unfitted for se- 
rious and continuous thought on the great subject 
of their salvation and. the divinely-appointed means 
by which they are to secure it. Indeed, they are 
disqualified for all the ordinary affairs of the pres- 
ent life. If persons have lived without Christ 
until smitten with their last sickness, and are then 
stupefied with narcotics or excited by stimulants, 
they cannot be instructed out of the Scriptures 
while in either of these two conditions of body and 
mind. The effort, however, should be made at 
times of greatest promise, and much prayer should 
be offered in their behalf. The result may not be 

* 

known till the great day reveals it. It is wrong to 
relax effort while life lasts. 

9. I conclude this part of my lecture with the 
statement of a fact verified by numerous pastors — 



THE SICK-BED. 31 

to wit, that of those who profess to have found 
Christ on a sick-bed, and afterward recover, not one 
in a hundred — hardly more than one in a thousand 
— consents to be numbered among the confessors of 
Christ. I do not include in this sad estimate the 
many who are alarmed by the seeming approach of 
death, and express their sorrow for misspent years, 
making solemn promise of amendment in case they 
recover. A promise of this kind is an easy expe- 
dient for calming a troubled conscience. A de- 
ceived and deceitful heart can hardly do worse. In 
effect it is the present rejection of the living Christ 
who waits to be gracious. One cannot be too ear- 
nest and persistent in telling those who propose to 
do hereafter what they are not willing to do at 
once that ■" Now is the accepted time ; behold, now 
is the day of salvation." 

In the intervals of pain caused by acute disease 
and the depression or excitement consequent upon 
the use of remedies of different kinds, the words of 
the glorified Christ, spoken in the demonstration of 
the Spirit and of power by a loving pastor or friend, 
may reach the heart : "Behold, I stand at the door 
and knock ; if any man hear my voice and open the 
door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him 
and he with me." 



32 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

The distinction between the sick-bed and the 
death-bed is easily recognized. In one case the 
patient recovers and returns to the scenes of his for- 
mer life ; in the other he passes away, and the places 
that once knew him know him no more for ever. 

It is true that diseases and medicines mav have 
precisely the same effect in the two cases. Mortal 
sickness is often attended bv weakness and illusions 
of the mind quite as serious as any connected with 
diseases from which persons recover. So, too, the 
instructions, invitations and promises of Scripture 
may be as unintelligible to persons sick unto death 
as to those who continue in life. 

From these and other facts and considerations a 
very sad and often unwarrantable conclusion is 
drawn — to wit, that because those who profess 
conversion on beds of sickness and recover are 
in most cases mistaken in their hopes and profes- 
sions, therefore those who make the like profession 
and die find themselves without God and without 
hope in the other world. This is not a warrant- 
able conclusion. It utterly fails to recognize the 
difference in the two cases. And because it seems 
to be the conclusion of great and good men I am 
the more anxious to mark the difference w T hich is 
so often overlooked. 



THE BE A TH-BED. 33 

1. The difference relates to the two classes of 
persons. 

Those who recover from their sickness have the 
opportunity of correcting mistakes and verifying 
results. If they have professed conversion, and, 
on recovering health, find their hearts still turned 
away from God, they have strong motives for ask- 
ing that they may be turned toward him by his 
saving grace. 

If they have made promises of reformation in 
case of recovery, and are disinclined or unable 
to break off their sins by righteousness, and there- 
fore continue in their old-time unbelief and trans- 
gressions, they have a most impressive lesson on the 
deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of their hearts, 
and yet are mercifully spared to profit by the lesson. 
In manv instances thev do at last seek and find the 
salvation of God, as did the young lady of whom 
Dr. Rice told me. 

But no such opportunity remains to those who 
die. If they are deceived, their day of salvation, 
we believe, is closed. Certainly no day of deliver- 
ance in the near or distant future is revealed. Even 
those who teach probation after death, and hate the 
doctrine of any judgment that decides and so fixes 
human destiny at death, are not understood to open 

3 



34 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

a door of hope to those who die in Christendom, 
whatever they may do for those who have never 
read or heard the gospel of the grace of God in 
this life. 

2. The difference is hardly less patent and im- 
pressive in relation to the friends of the two classes. 
It is a painful surprise to a pastor or to any one 
who has heard the words of the sick telling of peace 
and hope and heaven, and calling upon kindred to 
meet them in the presence of Christ, to be told by 
the persons themselves, a few days later, that they 
have no recollection of anything that occurred, or 
of words spoken by them or to them, and to find 
that in character and life they are what they were 
before the sickness. 

Or if they have only promised reformation if 
God would spare them, the surprise is hardly less 
painful to know that their pledge has no binding 
force with them — that their words spoken to friends 
and in the ear of God have no power against old 
habits of evil. 

Very different is the case of those who, having 
professed repentance, faith and hope, or with appar- 
ent solemnity and sincerity promised a new life in 
the service of Christ and their fellows, die, their 
spirits returning unto God who gave them. 



THE DEATH-BED. 35 

A young lady of exceptional intelligence, a 
teacher of high grade, with whom I had held 
very interesting conversations about the salvation 
of her soul, when near death drew her mother's 
ear close to her trembling lips, and said in a whis- 
per, " If I recover, I wish to unite with 

Church " (naming one that was not the church, or 
even the denomination, of her family). That wish 
— never gratified, for she soon died — was an un- 
speakable consolation to her Christian parents and 
to all who knew and loved her. We can neither 
verify nor disprove the change in her that her 
words implied until we go ourselves into the 
other world ; and possibly not even then. 

But while it comforts us greatly to think that 
her words to her mother revealed a change which, 
up to that time, had not been known, we take no 
hurt ourselves and do no harm to her. Nor do 
we think her case exceptional. Many children of 
Christian parents, and others who have had the 
care of the Church, come to the consciousness of 
need and the hope of salvation on beds of death. 

3. The difference between the two classes of per- 
sons so often referred to, as they are related to God, . 
is too great for us to understand. We may rever- 
ently think and speak of it. 



36 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

That some should live and others die depends 
upon the will of God. Life and death are not 
accidents. Our times are in his hands, the num- 
ber of our months is with him. If life is threat- 
ened and not taken, God spares it. If it is cut 
off by disease or calamity, we are taught to say, 
"Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Re- 
turn, ye children of men." Is it not like God to 
spare the guilty who are self-deceived ; to let them 
live that they may come to the knowledge of them- 
selves and lay hold of eternal life ; at least to give 
them further opportunity to know, every one, the 
plague of his own heart, and the healing of the 
plague by the grace and blood, the word and Spirit, 
of the living Christ ? And is it not in perfect keep- 
ing with what we know by revelation of the love 
of God that he should desire to have his dear chil- 
dren with him, and that he should call them hence 
when he knows it is safe to do so? The ques- 
tions are his own : " Have I any pleasure at all 
that the wicked should die ? saith the Lord God, 
and not that he should return from his ways and 
live?" We take him at his word. Not more 
surely have we hope for the penitent robber, who 
went from the cross to paradise in reliance on the 
sure word of Jesus, than for many who go from 



THE DEATH OF THE WICKED. 37 

the bed of death beyond our sight, mourning for 
their sin, freely making confession and rejoicing 
that they have found the Saviour, and eternal life 
in him, though in their last hours. 

In any case the difference of which I speak is so 
great that those who minister to the sick, not know- 
ing whether they are to recover or not, have no 
right to be indifferent or hopeless because they 
may have seen many recover and make void all 
their professions and promises. 

At best the sick-bed is not favorable to thought 
and feeling and decision in relation to the things of 
God and the eternal life which is his gift in Jesus 
Christ. But it often proves to be the only place 
remaining to the sick, and we should act intelli- 
gently, prayerfully, persistently and hopefully on 
the supposition that it is. 

As an incentive to the wise and faithful treat- 
ment of the sick and dying, of which I hope to 
speak particularly in the last lecture, I give here 
some of the contrasted experiences of the wicked 
and the righteous. In both cases there are great 
varieties. 

Some who die in their sins verify the words of 
Scripture : " Terrors take hold on him as waters, 
a tempest steal eth him away in the night. The 



38 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth : 
and as a storm hurleth him out of his place. For 
God shall cast upon him and not spare ; he would 
fain flee out of his hand ;" " This is the portion of a 
wicked man with God;" "The wicked is driven 
away in his wickedness;" "If ye believe not that 
I am he, said Jesus, ye shall die in your sins." 

So I have seen an ungodly man come to his death. 
He had lived without God in the world. A lovely 
daughter, dying in the faith of Christ in my pres- 
ence, called him to her side and secured from him 
the promise that he would attend the Sunday ser- 
vices of the church where she had found peace in 
believing:. For two or three Sundays he did so, 
and then relapsed into his old ways. Suddenly, 
after two or three years of persistent violation of 
his promise, he was summoned to his death. I was 
sent for in great haste, and found him in sore pain 
of body and agony of mind. All that I could do 
was to speak a few words of instruction and invita- 
tion from God's word and offer prayer. But he 
died as he had lived, and, so far as I know, with- 
out a ray of liffht. 

I will not utter the fearful words of malignant 
rage that have fallen from human lips in dying 
moments. Some resist death as long as possible, 



THE DEATH OF THE WICKED. 39 

and openly declare that they will not die. I have 
in remembrance the case of a comparatively young 
lawyer who almost defied death, and boldly pro- 
claimed his determination to live. 

I have known a man to spend his last strength 
in trying to strike a Christian minister who strove 
to lead him to Christ. A young woman of high 
social position and many accomplishments utterly 
refused all the offices of a kind pastor, under the 
awful conviction that she had destroyed her own 
soul ; and she gave utterance in her last hours to 
the direst hatred of the blessed Redeemer. 

Francesco Speira professed the evangelical faith 
in the days of the Reformation under Luther ; but 
he afterward abjured it, and became the prey of 
remorseful despair until he died. The intolerable 
conviction that he was for ever lost caused him at 
times to roar like a beast, and yet in his despair he 
could not repent ; and so he left the world. 

Some of "the wicked have no bands in their 
death." They have their good things in this life, 
and make no provision for the life to come. Judg- 
ing themselves as good as their neighbors, and bet- 
ter than some confessors of Christ, they die — regret- 
fully, but not in despair, for God gives them strong 
delusions to believe a lie. 



40 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

Others — and they are many- — die in a moment, 
in the twinkling of an eye. They are on shipboard, 
and go down into the depths when the cyclone 
smites them ; or on the cars in the wreck or the 
flames ; or their hearts fail as they sit among their 
kindred or walk the streets or pursue their callings 
or their pleasures. And many fall in the deadly 
strife of arms, covered with martial glory, honored 
of men, but utterly destitute of holiness, without 
which no man shall see the Lord. 

But there is a class of persons of whom I shall 
have something hopeful to say in the next lecture. 
They are in very close relation to the people of 
God. Children of the covenant, they have borne 
the sign and seal of the righteousness of faith from 
infancy. Or, if this is not the case, they belong to 
Christian households. From childhood thev have 
been taught the truths of Scripture by believing 
parents and have been claimed for God. Coming to 
their death by sudden calamity or after short sick- 
ness, they deeply feel their need of Christ, and may 
not be classed with those who have no hope in their 
death. 

I close this lecture with a delightful theme — the 
Death of the Righteous. " Precious in the sight of 
the Lord is the death of his saints." 



THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 41 

Aaeox died in Mt. Hor, and was gathered unto 
his people. 

It was made the duty of Moses to go up into 
Mt. Nebo and die, and be gathered unto his peo- 
ple ; but he was allowed first to see the good land 
that God w r as about to give to the children of 
Israel. 

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, stood before 
the council that condemned him, and they saw his 
face as it had been the face of an angel. Cut to 
the heart by his words of truth, they gnashed on 
him with their teeth. "But he being full of the 
Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, 
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on 
the right hand of God." As the stones smote him 
he called upon God and said, " Lord Jesus, receive 
my spirit." Even after this " he kneeled down 
and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin 
to their charge. And when he had said this, he 
fell asleep." " He fell asleep " — language that our 
Saviour authorizes us to use in speaking of the 
Christian's decease. " Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, 
but I go that I may awake him out of sleep." And 
therefore St. Paul wrote, "If we believe that Jesus 
died and rose again, even so them also that sleep in 
Jesus will God bring with him." 



42 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

In anticipation of his own martyrdom, Paul wrote 
these brave words to Timothy, his own son in the 
faith: "I am now ready to be offered, and the 
time of my departure is at hand. I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have 
kept the faith : henceforth there is laid up for me 
a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
righteous judge, shall give me at that day ; and 
not to me only, but unto all them also that love 
his appearing." 

Polycarp, who died in the flames of martyr- 
dom A. D. 155, is reported to have exclaimed, "O 
Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus 
Christ ! O God of all principalities and of all crea- 
tion ! I bless thee that thou hast counted me worthy 
of this day and this hour, to receive my portion in 
the number of the martyrs, in the cup of Christ." 

John Owen, author of many standard works, 
and among them The Person and Glory of Christy 
was born 1616, and died near London in 1683. 
" Oh, Brother Payne," he said, " the long-looked- 
for day is come at last, in which I shall see the 
glory in another manner than I have ever yet 
done or been capable of doing." 

Thomas Halyburton, professor of divinity in 
the University of St. Andrews, died there A. D. 



THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 43 

1712. On his death-bed he testified, "Here is a 
demonstration of the reality of religion, that I, a 
poor, weak, timorous man, as much afraid of death 
as any, am now enabled, by the power of grace, 
composedly and with joy to look death in the face." 

Bjchakd Cecil, born 1748 and dying 1810, 
gave this testimony : " My first convictions on the 
subject of religion [he was once an infidel] were 
confirmed by observing that really religious persons 
had some solid happiness among them, which I felt 
the vanities of the world could not give. I shall 
never forget standing by the bedside of my sick 
mother. "Are vou not afraid to die?" I asked. 
"No! no !" was her reply. "Why does the un- 
certainty of another life give you no concern ?" I 
asked. She answered, "'Because God has said, 
1 Fear not ; when thou passest through the waters, 
I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, thev 
shall not overflow thee/ " He adds, " Let me die 
the death of the righteous." 

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism (1703- 
1797), closed his long and useful life with these 
words : " The best of all is, God is with us." 

Thomas Scott (1747-1821), shortly before his 
departure, said, " This is heaven begun. I have 
done with darkness for ever, for ever. Satan is 



44 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

vanquished ; nothing now remains but salvation 
with eternal glory." 

Mrs. Elizabeth Harvey, the wife of a mis- 
sionary in Bombay, exclaimed, "If this is the 
dark valley, it has not a dark spot in it. All is 
light, light." 

Wanting words to express her views of the maj- 
esty and glory of Christ, she added, "It seems 
that if all other glory were annihilated, and noth- 
ing left but his bare self, it would be enough ; it 
would be a universe of glory." 

So we are reminded of blessed Rutherford's 
words, in one of his charming letters : " Heaven 
and Christ are the same thing." 

The testimony of Dr. Edward Payson (1783- 
1827) of Portland, Maine, is remarkable for its 
clearness, comprehensiveness and preciousness. 
Few persons, after living, as he did, in glad, some- 
times melancholy, yet always intense devotion to 
the service of Christ and his Church and cause, are 
permitted to say much on the bed of death. Like 
his brother Henry, a ruling elder of our church 
when I became its pastor in 1850, he was of a ner- 
vous temperament, and suffered often from deep 
depression of spirit. Dr. Payson is said to have 
spoken thus at different times on his death-bed : 



THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 45 

il My God is in this room. I see him, and oh, 
how lovely is the sight ! How glorious does he ap- 
pear ! worthy of ten thousand hearts, if I had so 
many to give !" 

At another time, when his bodv was racked with 
inconceivable pain, he exclaimed, as if returning 
from a field of conflict and victory, "The battle's 
fought ! the battle's fought ! and the victory is won ; 
the victory is won for ever ! I am going to bathe in an 
ocean of purity and benevolence and happiness to all 
eternity. . . . The celestial city is in full view ; its 
glories beam upon me ; its breezes fan me ; its odors 
are wafted to me ; its music strikes upon my ear, 
and its spirit breathes into my heart. Nothing 
separates me from it but the river of death, which 
now appears as a narrow rill which may be crossed 
at a single step whenever God shall give permis- 
sion. . . . The Sun of righteousness has been draw- 
ing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and larger 
as he approached, and now he fills the hemisphere, 
pouring forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to 
float like an insect in the beams of the sun, exult- 
ing, yet almost trembling, while I gaze on excessive 
brightness, and wondering, with unutterable wonder, 
why God should deign thus to shine upon a sinful 
worm." 



46 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

The Eev. Richard W, Dickinson, D. D., of 
Fordham, N. Y., with his family about him, look- 
ing heavenward and reaching out his arms as if to 
embrace the Saviour coming to receive him to him- 
self, simply said, " My crucified and risen Lord I" 

Mortimer Strong, a deacon of our church, 
raised himself up in the bed, and with firm voice 
and deepest emotion exclaimed, 

" Lend, lend your wings. I mount, I fly. 
O Death, where is thy sting ? O Grave, where is thy victory ?" 

And, finally, the Rev. Charles Hodge, D D., 
whom so many of us knew and honored and loved, 
" seeing his widowed daughter weeping while she 
watched him, stretched his hand toward her and 
said, ( Why should you grieve, daughter? To be 
absent from the body is to be with the Lord ; to be 
with the Lord is to see the Lord ; to see the Lord 
is to be like him ! ' 

"To a loving inquiry of his wife he once said, 
'Yes, my love, my Saviour is with me every step 
of the way ; but I am too weak to talk about it/ 
Once she asked him if it would comfort him if she 
should repeat aloud his favorite hymn. He an- 
swered, i No, dearest ; I am repeating it over and 
over again to myself all the while/ 



> » 



THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. 47 

It was the hymn of Mrs. Weiss, daughter of the 
Archbishop of Dublin, composed on her death-bed. 

I make record of the entire hymn as revealing: 
the dying thoughts of the great and good man so 
long professor in this seminary : 

Jesus, I am never weary 

When upon this bed of pain ; 
If thy presence only cheer me, 

All my loss I count but gain. 
Ever near me, 

Ever near me, Lord, remain ! 

Dear ones come with fruit and flowers, 
Thus to cheer my heart the while, 

In these deeply anxious hours. 
Oh, if Jesus only smile ! 

Only Jesus 
Can these trembling fears beguile. 

All my sins were laid upon thee, 

All my griefs were on thee laid ; 
For the blood of thine atonement 

All my utmost debt has paid. 
Dearest Saviour ! 

I believe, for thou hast said. 

Dearest Saviour ! go not from me ; 

Let thy presence still abide ; 
Look in tenderest love upon me : 

I am sheltering at thy side. 
Dearest Saviour ! 

Who for suffering: sinners died. 



48 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

Both mine arms are clasped around thee, 
And my head is on thy breast, 

And my weary soul has found thee 
Such a perfect, perfect rest. 

Dearest Saviour ! 
Now I know that I am blessed. 



LECTURE II. ■ 

Salvation possible, anb in man£ cases 
probable, on tbe H>eatb*3Be&* 



LECTUEE II. 

SALVATION POSSIBLE, AND IN MANY CASES 
PROBABLE, ON THE DEATH-BED. 

A T first thought it may seem to be a waste of time 
to state and prove what none holding to the 
truth of Scripture will deny. But there are some — 
I hope not many — who have no controlling belief 
that the lost may be found and saved in the last 
hours of a sinful and wasted life. A Christian 
pastor told me that his experience with many who 
professed to find Christ as their Saviour, or prom- 
ised amendment of life if God would spare them, 
while on beds of sickness, and afterward recovered, 
was so disheartening that he had ceased to make 
special efforts for the salvation of the sick. A 
very sad mistake ! Worse than a mistake ! While 
there is life there is hope. James M. Campbell, in 
his little book, Unto the Uttermost, has well said of 
the Christian ambassador, " Down to the dying 
moment he is to stand beside the sinner, telling of. 
the mercy that stoops to receive the fragments of 
a wasted life; telling of the blood of sprinkling, 

51 



52 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

and challenging earth and hell to show a sin it 
cannot cleanse." * 

The difference between recovering from sickness 
to prove one's profession false, and dying possibly 
to prove it true, we have already seen, is too great 
for the human mind to compass. 

There are two extremes, to one or other of which 
we tend in relation to those for whose souls we 
watch, especially when the circumstances are pecu- 
liarly trying : one is presumption, and the other 
despair. And to one or other of these extremes 
the unsaved are in danger of being driven in times 
of severe and deadly sickness. 

"Men of the world," as we are wont to call 
them, busy with the affairs, the ambitions, the 
pleasures of this life, if they allow themselves to 
think seriously of the life to come, hope to have 
leisure and disposition to prepare for that other life 
when they have achieved success or when the solem- 
nities of the last sickness are upon and around them. 
This is presumption. 

When the leisure of retirement from active bus- 
iness is theirs, the disposition and ability for the 
mightiest of all human enterprises, the laying hold 

* The book carefully read is helpful ; but there is much in 
it I cannot receive as true. 



SALVATION POSSIBLE. 53 

of eternal life, are seldom given them. And when 
sickness comes, with its pains and exhaustion, its 
distraction and fear of death, the necessity of sub- 
mitting to medical treatment, and, it may be, the 
careful exclusion from their presence of all who 
would speak to them of Christ and the great salva- 
tion,— if they retain reason and consciousness they 
begin to recognize the difficulties in their way, and 
may go to the other extreme, sinking into hopeless 
despondency, the sinful despair of unbelief. 

While not forgetting that the general drift of 
Bible teaching and divine providence, with the 
main facts of human experience, is strongly against 
the delay of conversion until sickness comes, we 
should fortify ourselves with strong reasons for 
believing that conversion, and therefore salvation, 
is possible when death is near. 

1. One of these reasons is the nature of con- 
version. 

I use the word " conversion " in the popular 
sense, as including the regeneration of the sinner 
by the Holy Spirit, and his consequent turning 
unto God through Jesus Christ. In this view it 
comprehends effectual calling, faith in at least its 
first act of looking unto Jesus, and repentance, the 
two graces last named rooting themselves in the first. 



54 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

The Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism 
is helpful here, for its definitions are not only 
Scriptural, but clear as crystal, and they set no 
limit to the saving power of the Holy Spirit 
while the earthly life continues : 

"Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, 
whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, en- 
lightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, 
and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and 
enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered 
to us in the gospel." 

" Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby 
we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as 
he is offered to us in the gospel." 

" Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby 
a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and appre- 
hension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with 
grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, 
with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obe- 
dience." 

Rarely as this may be thought to occur, it is quite 
within the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace 
of God on a death-bed. The effectual calling or 
the new creation of a lost sinner is always, we be- 
lieve, the instantaneous work of the Holy Spirit. 
Saving faith and repentance follow. The sinner 



SALVATION POSSIBLE. 55 

is passive in the birth from above. He may have 
in his mind and heart the word of God as the 
instrument by means of which the work is effected, 
and yet not know when or how the great change is 
wrought. " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh and whither it goeth ; so is every 
one that is born of the Spirit." 

Even if a sinner on his death-bed is indifferent 
or presumptuous or despairing, others who love his 
soul may be prayerful and importunate in seeking 
his salvation. In that case it may please God that 
the blessing shall come as to the paralytic borne by 
others and laid at the feet of Jesus for healing. 

If you are ministering to the sufferer, you may 
be gratefully surprised to see the proofs of the 
Holy Spirit's presence and saving power in his 
agitation, in his new views of sin and righteousness 
and judgment ; in his sorrow for his sinfulness and 
transgressions, of which, at last, he has begun to 
take account as in God's presence; in his confession, 
his godly sorrow, his prayer for pardon and his 
humble and glad reliance upon Christ as his Saviour 
and Master. The agitation of the trees of the wood 
and the lifting up of the great waves of the sea are 
not stronger proof that the winds are abroad than 



56 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

such changes in a sinner are proof that the Holy 
Spirit has begun the work of his salvation. And 
we ought to be quick to recognize the work for 
which we have wrought earnestly with God and 
faithfully with man. 

The analogy of all creative acts of which we have 
any knowledge strengthens our belief that the be- 
ginning of this saving work is instantaneous. " God 
spake and it was done ; he commanded and it stood 
fast." He said, " Let light be," and light was. 
And as if on purpose to associate the two creative 
acts in our minds, we have the words of the Holy 
Spirit by the Apostle : " God, who commanded 
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in 
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 
The principle of the new life is given to the sinner, 
dead in trespasses and sins, by the Spirit of God 
and in the use of some portion of the word of 
reconciliation. Whether the earthly life after that 
is measured by years or moments, salvation is sure. 
All else follows in a revealed and, so far as we 
know, a changeless order. " Whom he did pre- 
destinate, them he also called ; and whom he called, 
them he also justified ; and whom he justified, them 
lie also glorified." Justification, adoption and sane- 



SALVATION POSSIBLE. 57 

tificatiou are the fruitage of regeneration. They 
come as the blade, the ear and the full corn in the 
ear from the precious seed which God quickens to 
a plenteous harvest. 

The process may be miraculously, and of course 
graciously, quick, reminding us how easily and in- 
stantly, in one case, by the will and word of Jesus, 
water was converted into the best of wine. In all 
ordinary cases there must be the vine, the fruitful 
season, the leaf, the blossom, the clusters of juicy 
grapes, the wine-press or the treading of feet, the 
wine-vat, the wine-cellar and the long years before 
the water becomes the beverage that men thirst for 
and enjoy. 

2. There are well-authenticated cases of conver- 
sion with death in immediate prospect, but averted 
at the last moment, and giving the convert the priv- 
ilege of bearing; witness for himself. 

I have long been familiar with a well-authen- 
ticated case of this kind. A young man from the 
city of New York was lost overboard in the Gulf 
of Mexico. Sinking beneath the waters, he soon 
became unconscious, and in that condition was res- 
cued and after a time resuscitated. The account he 
gave on coming back to life, and afterward, w r as of 
great interest as bearing upon this point. 



58 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

During the moments that passed before he lost 
consciousness he had many and momentous thoughts. 
Their multitude was the measure of time. Moments 
seemed to be lengthened to hours, until at last he 
appeared to himself to die. But in those swift 
moments he had time to review his life. A deep 
conviction of his ruin and helplessness as a justly- 
condemned sinner was the result. But he saw with 
equal clearness the open door of hope. It pleased 
God, as he believed, to reveal to him the way of life 
through Jesus Christ, and to enable him to take the 
first steps therein. He had been taught the great 
truths of the gospel before, but had never received 
them as a revelation and convevance of life to him- 
self. Now they became his by the teaching and gift 
of the Holy Spirit. He consciously received Jesus 
Christ as his Saviour and Master for the little 
remnant of his life and the eternity that was be- 
fore him. 

Happily, the companions of this young man were 
quickly directed to the spot where he lay. Restored 
to consciousness, he found himself, as he hoped, a 
new creature in Christ Jesus. He retained a vivid 
remembrance of the covenant he had made with 
God with death in view, and faithfully performed 
his vow. Returning to his home in New York, he 



SALVATION POSSIBLE. 59 

openly confessed Christ, who sought and, he be- 
lieved, found him when doublv lost. Years of sin- 
cere devotion gave pleasing evidence of the reality 
of the change, and he* departed at last in the 
blessed hope of the life everlasting. 

There is one case of conversion shortly before 
death, the record of which is preserved in the New 
Testament. Regarding this, therefore, there can be 
no doubt. But I call in question the warrant for 
the inference that there is only one, lest we should 
believe in death-bed conversions. As well infer, 
because there are few records in the Scriptures of 
triumphant departures, that the saints of old did 
not in many cases close life in peace and joy. 
Better adopt the view of Augustine, that " There 
is one instance of death-bed repentance recorded in 
the Scriptures — the penitent thief — that none 
should despair ; and only one, that none may pre- 
sume." 

I believe that in the aggregate there are many 
instances of salvation coming to sinners on beds of 
death, and that God will graciously own pastoral 
wisdom and fidelity to the large increase of the 
number. 

The case referred to by Augustine, in language 
often quoted, has special claims upon our thought. 



60 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

I share in the wonder and gratitude of those who 
have made it a careful study, and trust you will 
pardon my lingering upon it a little, even though 
I have nothing new to say. 

" With Jesus our Lord two thieves (hjoral, rob- 
bers) were crucified, one on the right hand, and 
another on the left." Each of the four gospels 
makes record of the fact, yet no two in precisely 
the same words.* 

The " disciple whom Jesus loved" contents 
himself with the simple but affecting record : " And 
two others with him, on either side one, and Jesus 
in the midst." 

The Evangelist Luke alone twice calls them 
malefactors (xaxoupyoe, evil-workers). The arrange- 
ment of the three crosses and their victims w T as a 
device of the haters of Jesus to put upon him the 
greater shame. They had no thought of fulfilling 
prophecy in thus literally numbering him with 
transgressors, and of preparing the way for a most 
wonderful work of saving grace. The enemies of 
God and man often defeat themselves by choosing 
their own way. Never before had such a scene 
been witnessed in Golgotha. It cannot be repeat- 

* Matt. 27 : 44 ; Mark 15 : 27 ; Luke 23 : 32, 39-43 ; John 
19:18. 



SALVATION POSSIBLE. 61 

ed. The central cross was the cynosure of all 
eyes. It bore the Lord of glory — the Son of God, 
made the Son of man — that the sons and daughters 
of men might become the sons and daughters of 
the Lord Almighty. And these were the hours of 
his greatest weakness, shame and anguish of spirit. 

It seems incredible that in these solemn and 
awful hours the people whom he had served in 
many ways should revile him ; that even the chief 
priests and scribes and elders should invent terms 
of reproach and blasphemy ; and, strangest of all, 
that the thieves also which were crucified with him 
should cast the same in his teeth. But such is the 
testimony of the writers of the first two gospels. 

What a treasure, therefore, is the third synoptic 
gospel, that gives the final fact regarding one of 
the malefactors ! It is Luke, called elsewhere " the 
beloved physician," who makes the record to which 
I refer, in these impressive words : " And one of 
the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, 
saying, If thou be the Christ, save thyself and 
us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, say- 
ing, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the 
same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for 
we receive the due reward of our deeds ; but this 
man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto 



62 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into 
(in) thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Ver- 
ily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me 
in paradise/' 

This is the record entire. This man felt the pangs 
of true grief for his sins in the very presence of the 
crucified Jesus. The fear of God fell upon him. 
He acknowledged the justice of his condemnation 
under human law and his deep guilt under God's 
law. He felt most keenly that because he was 
a criminal in relation to men he was a sinner in 
relation to God. Wronging his fellows, he had of- 
fended God. Gladly would he have led his fellow- 
criminal to repentance, confession and prayer, but 
he tried in vain. Wonderful change ! The Holy 
Spirit was his teacher. No voice of his fellow- 
men helped him. Pitiful women stood afar off be- 
holding, but their eyes and thoughts were on their 
expiring Lord. Only Christ himself answered 
him. And what an answer! It was better than a 
coronation. " To-day shalt thou be with me in 
paradise." We do not know that any other words 
than those already quoted passed between them. 
But they were enough. They did not overtax even 
a dying man. The remaining hours of his mortal 
agony, we suppose, were spent in looking unto 



SALVATION POSSIBLE. 63 

Jesus, listening to the gracious words that fell from 
his lips, beholding him as he gave up the ghost, 
and then waiting till death should set him free to 
join his Lord and Saviour in the paradise of God. 
One such case is enough. It compels the belief 
that the salvation of the lost is possible on the bed 
of death. It demands of us the recognition of 
this possibility in the most desperate cases. Better 
speak words of life in the ear that seems closed for 
ever than be silent when an immortal soul is in 
peril. I once read short portions of Scripture and 
prayed in few words at the bedside of a man who 
could not see nor speak nor move, and continued to 
do so, visiting him day after day, when he was 
thought to be unconscious and quite beyond all 
helpful ministry. But he rallied at last, remem- 
bered every interview, heard and considered all 
that was read and spoken to him and the prayers 
offered, and was thankful for the effort made in 
his behalf. He did not recover from his sickness, 
but he had hope in his death, and we shared 
with his kindred in the belief that he died in the 
Lord. 

Still, it is not wise or safe to wait for a last sick- 
ness for opportunities to win souls to Christ. I 
cannot forget the impressive words of the Rev. Dr. 



64 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

Spencer in the last of three published sermons on 
" The Delay of Conversion." 

" I roust confess to you/' he says, " that I can 
think of no words, form or figure to express the 
diminutiveness of that hope with which we preach 
the gospel to the graceless on their beds of death. 
What becomes of those who die we know not — 
thank God, we know not. But among all the in- 
stances of supposed conversion on a sick-bed which 
I have known (and I have known many in a min- 
istry of twenty-five years), only four of those who 
recovered gave any evidence in after-life of the re- 
ligion which they thought they had gained when 
sick. . . . What a lesson on the delay of conver- 
sion ! What an appalling lesson !" Then he en- 
larges on the difficulties and dangers of those who 
come to their last sickness without a well-tried hope 
in Christ. 

Let the great lesson of these strong sermons re- 
main. They are the testimony of a great and good 
man — one of the most faithful and successful pas- 
tors I have ever known. But in passing to the 
other part of our subject, viz. Salvation Probable 
on a Death-Bed in certain cases, I cannot with- 
hold the suggestion that the difference between 
a sick-bed and a death-bed is not recognized as 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 65 

it should be. It does not follow, as a known 
truth, because so large a proportion of those who 
think they have found Christ on a sick-bed, on 
recovering find themselves mistaken, that a like 
proportion of those who say for the first time on 
their death-bed that he is all their salvation and 
all their desire are mistaken too. 

The conversion of the jailer of Philippi occurred 
in very close relation to death threatened bv his own 
hand. But there is another feature of his case that 
deserves notice in this connection. It is said of him 
that after receiving the answer to his question, 
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" — "Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved 
and thy house," he took Paul and Silas, " the same 
hour of the night, and washed their stripes ; and 
was baptized, he and all his, straightway." 

Already Lydia and her household had been bap- 
tized. 

In one other case we have the Apostle's testi- 
mony, " I baptized also the household of Stephanas." 
Here, therefore, were these households brought into 
covenant relations with God, and baptized in visible 
recognition and token of the relation. I am not 
now assuming that there were young children in all 
or any of these families, and consequently pleading 



66 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

for infant baptism. It rests upon firmer ground 
than this. It is enough to claim that in these three 
cases the household covenant was kept clearly in 
view. It was as dear to St. Paul, a converted Jew 
and the founder of many Christian churches, as to 
Simon Peter, who, on the day of Pentecost, said, 
" The promise is unto you and to your children, and 
to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord 
our God shall call." And it was no dearer to him 
than to the prophet Joel, eight hundred, and to 
Abraham, nineteen hundred, years before Christ. 
That old covenant stands in all the fullness of its 
benediction for parents and their children and chil- 
dren's children to this day. Even the Decalogue, iu 
its second commandment, reveals God as " showing 
mercy unto thousands of them that love him and 
keep his commandments." And these " thousands" 
we believe are generations. 

The covenant with Abraham was partly in these 
words : u And I will establish my covenant between 
me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their gene- 
rations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God 
unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." 

When, therefore, the salvation of God comes to 
the head of a house, a blessing is diffused through 
the household. In by far the larger portion of the 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 67 

Christian Church the younger members of a family 
receive the si«;n and seal of the righteousness of 
faith in holy baptism when the older believe the 
gospel. And whether the baptism come to adults 
or infants, it has precisely the same meaning : 
" Baptism is a sacrament, wherein the washing 
with water in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, doth signify and seal 
our engrafting into Christ, and partaking of the 
benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engage- 
ment to be the Lord's." 

Hundreds and thousands of children and youths 
and adults the world over bear this sacred seal on 
their persons. Many have come to years of full 
responsibility without meeting the engagement to 
be the Lord's which their parents made for them at 
their baptism. They may fall sick and die as well 
as others. We do not forget that the household 
covenant is not unconditional. Eli and Samuel 
and Aaron and David had sons who departed far 
from God, and so far as we know they died in their 
sins. But the privileges of parents under the former 
dispensation are not denied to parents under this. 
The advantage is with the new and latter until the 
Lord shall come. 

Here, I think, is laid a broad and deep founda- 



68 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

tion for the hope that many children of the cove- 
nant are saved by grace in their last hours. The 
Rev. James W. Alexander, D. D., in his Plain 
Words to a Young Communicant, expresses the 
opinion that in the trying circa instances of a last 
sickness not a few are thrown back upon what he 
calls "the faith of their childhood/' and, coming to 
the consciousness of need, find it all supplied in 
Jesus Christ. 

I fully believe, whatever exceptions there may 
be, that salvation flows as a river, broad and deep, 
in the channel of the household covenant. 

1. In some cases — many, we may hope — the 
change is wrought in very early life, though not 
clearly recognized by parents and friends. Or they 
may be surprised now and then with almost un- 
conscious acts on the part of their children, com- 
pelling the thought that the fear and love of God 
have been planted in their hearts. 

Suddenly fatal sickness falls upon them, and 
death is at hand, but there is no slavish fear. 
They assure those who care tenderly for their sal- 
vation that they can remember no time when they 
did not love and trust the Saviour and desire to 
please him. They have never been prayerless. It 
has long been their wish to confess Jesus as their 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 69 

Saviour, and it has grieved them not to come to the 
Lord's table with his people. But they have been 
kept from it in accordance with a custom that has 
not favored early admission to it — a custom, I be- 
lieve, more hurtful than helpful to the young, the 
household and the Church. Nor can I think it 
pleasing to the Saviour. No one doubts, when 
children of this class have departed this life, that 
thev have gone to be for ever svith the Lord. 
Surely the terms of admission to the Church tri- 
umphant must suffice for admission to communion 
with the Saviour's disciples on earth. 

I cannot withhold, in this connection, a few 
words from the last sermon delivered to his own 
people in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, by the Rev. 
Charles H. Spurgeon, on the morning of June 7, 
1891. The very next day he had the chill which 
was the begin ning of his fatal sickness. 

He was speaking on the words, " And his men 
that were with him did David bring up (to Hebron), 
every man with his household." His words are all 
the more suggestive because he was a Baptist. 

" There is a Hebron/' he said, " where Jesus 
reigns as anointed king, and he will not be there 
and leave one of us behind. His poor people who 
have been with him in faintness and weariness shall 



70 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

be with him in glory, and their households. Hold 
on to that additional blessing. I pray you, hold 
on to it. Do not let slip the words and their house- 
holds. I fear we often lose a blessing on our 
households through clipping the promises. When 
the jailer asked what he must do to be saved, what 
was the answer? ' Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved/ You have heard 
that answer hundreds of times, have you not ? 
Did you ever hear the rest of it ? Why do preach- 
ers and quoters snip off corners from gospel prom- 
ises? It runs thus : 'Thou shalt be saved and thy 
house.' Lay hold of that blessed enlargement of 
grace." 

Shall we that believe in the household covenant 
have painful doubts as to the salvation of our 
children who die without fear and claiming the 
Saviour as their own ? 

2. In many cases the change from death unto 
life manifestly has not been wrought by the Holv 
Spirit up to the time of the last sickness. The 
folly of youth has continued. A wayward spirit 
in relation to parental authority and the restraints 
of the school and the church raav have been dom- 
inant, and even defiant. They have been taught 
the truths of God's word in the home, the sane- 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 71 

tuary, the Sunday-school and, it may be, the col- 
lege. Prayer has been offered for them continual- 
ly by parents, kindred, pastors, teachers, churches, 
and by many, too, who may ha\ r e gone before into 
the heavens. At last they are arrested by fatal 
sickness. The Saviour's will and hand are in the 
arrest. He stands at the door and knocks. Is he 
less concerned to save than we are? less than 
Satan is to destroy? He sends his messengers to 
them. Is there no sign of his willingness to save 
in this? By his word and Spirit he shows to many 
the plague of their hearts and constrains them to 
ask for the healing of the plague. Conscience at 
last is fully aroused. There is recollection, sorrow, 

•/ 7 7 

confession, inquiry, What must I do to be saved? 
It is the old question. And the old answer is the 
true one — the whole of it, because it brings to view 
the household covenant : " Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy 
house." Parental faith comes to the rescue. 
Covenant blessings are importunately sought. The 
God of salvation hears for Christ's sake. He is 
not watching to kill, but to make alive. The 
wonders of salvation are all his, and bring glory to 
his name. The time element does not mean so 
much to him as to us. William Jay once said that 



72 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

Christ is able "to save to the uttermost ends of the 
earth; to the uttermost limits of time; to the ut- 
termost period of life ; to the uttermost depth of 
depravity ; to the uttermost depth of misery ; and 
to the uttermost measure of perfection." And 
Spurgeon, quoted by the same writer (James M. 
Campbell), says: "If you are so far gone that 
there seems to be not even a ghost of a shade of a 
shadow of a hope anywhere about you, yet if you 
believe in Jesus you shall live. Trust in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, for he is worthy to be trusted. 
Throw yourself upon him, and he will carry you 
in his bosom. Cast your whole weight upon his 
atonement; it will bear the strain." 

This sweet truth, tenderly reiterated in the ear 
of the dying who have long neglected it, may be 
blessed of God to mo vino; their sorrow for him 
whom they have pierced, and their joy that he 
waits to be gracious, and is willing: and able to save 
them in their last hours. 

If any pervert the truth that sinners are saved 
even in such circumstances, and therefore continue 
to neglect the great salvation in time of health, 
delaying conversion for the time of sickness, they 
have reason to fear that when at last they call, if 
ever they do, God will not answer. 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 73 

Will you pardon an allusion to a personal inci- 
dent? It had much to do with correcting what up 
to that time had been, I think, a false estimate of 
my own with regard to responsibility for the per- 
version of facts as to death-bed repentance, especial- 
ly when published to the world. 

Bein^ in London, England, in the fall of 1858, 
I was invited to address the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association. About six hundred were present, 
many of them not disciples of Christ. In urg- 
ing them to embrace the gospel without delay, I 
related the leading facts in regard to a young man 
of promise in the office of the Atlantic Mutual In- 
surance Company of New York City, who was 
fatally hurt one Saturday night, and, after seven 
days and seven nights of unutterable agony, died 
in the peace which only the gospel can give. As I 
was with him more or less all through that event- 
ful week, and after every interview 7 made careful 
record of his words and changing experiences, and 
also wrote letters to him instructing him in the 
truths of the gospel and the way of salvation, to 
be read to him by his mother when, for any reason, 
I could not see him, I was able from memory and 
heart to give the diary of that wonderful week. 
Especially I related how, from my first interview 



74 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

with him, on Monday, July 20, 1857, until Wed- 
nesday morning, the 22d, he said strongly that he 
was " not prepared for death, and knew that he 
was a lost soul, and deserved to be lost, because, 
while he knew his dutv, he would not mind God." 

But the story is quite too long to relate here. 
Let it be enough to add that on the afternoon of 
that day, Wednesday, July 22d, he greeted me with 
the glad tidings that he had found peace in believ- 
ing. He gave a most satisfactory account of the 
change, and good reasons for the hope that was in 
him. Nor did it afterward fail— except during 
two or three dark hours, from which he emerged 
into the clear light of an endless day — as all who 
knew him best believed. 

On the platform, as I gave the narrative, was the 
Eev. T. W. J. Wylie, D. D., of Philadelphia, Pa., 
then a stranger to me. Deeply affected, even to 
tears, he accompanied me to my hotel, and urged 
me to publish the account which I had given oral- 
ly. I told him that while I could easily do it, as 
my notes were full and consecutive, yet I had not 
thought of doing it. I had no question, nor had 
others who knew the facts, as to the reality and 
blessedness of the change, but I was afraid the liv- 
ing might pervert the lateness of the conversion to 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 75 

their own delay in seeking the Saviour, and die in 
their sins. Dr. Wylie reasoned earnestly with me. 
He said the unsaved perverted even the gospel. I 
had all the facts. I could not be held responsible 
for the perversion of them by others, but I would 
be responsible if I withheld them from the knowl- 
edge of others, and so virtually suppressed them. 

I promised to consider what he said, and finally 
I acted upon his suggestion, and the Carters in New 
York and houses in London and Edinburgh pub- 
lished the narrative. A year or two ago the Messrs. 
Carter gave the stereotype plates to me, and I gave 
them to the Board of Publication. Under a slight- 
ly changed name, Saved by Grace; or, The Last 
Week in the Life of Davis Johnson, Jr., it is now 
published by the Board, and I am thankful to know 
that it has not lived so Ions: in vain. 

I ought to add that the young man was the son 
of Christian parents. His father had been for many 
years an elder in a Reformed (Dutch) church, 
though at the time a member of our church, and 
the son was taught the Scriptures from his youth. 

3. But the children of godly parents may be cut 
off more suddenly still. 

Some years ago I was called to visit a young 
Scotchman, not long in this country, who had taken 



76 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

employment for the time in a distillery. Caught 
in the machinery, he was so fearfully torn that he 
lived but a few hours. Far away in the old coun- 
try, his believing father and mother knew nothing 
of his hurt until, a few days later, I wrote them 
of his death. Up to the time of his fatal injury 
he had made no confession of Christ as his Sav- 
iour. He had been baptized in infancy on the faith 
of his parents. Well instructed in the Scriptures 
and familiar with the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, 
much precious truth was in his memory. Under 
the help given him by the Holy Spirit, the truth 
seemed to find its way at once to his heart. He ac- 
knowledged his sinfulness, transgressions and guilt. 
Of a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, 
he was eager for instruction, receiving the truth in 
the love of it, and accepting Christ as his Saviour 
with all readiness and gladness of heart. It was a 
sacred pleasure to stay by him, leading him Christ- 
ward and heavenward, although the throbbing of his 
failing heart could be seen through the opening the 
cogs had made. 

4. Many sons are sent or go from their Christian 
homes never to return, and yet to be found, as I 
trust this young man will be, safe in the Father's 
house at the home-coming of the godly parents. 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 77 

Overtaken on the sea or the land bv sickness or ca- 
lamity, they are suddenly confronted with death, 
are thrown back upon their childhood's instruc- 
tion, and, by the watchful Spirit of God, come to a 
better than even their childhood's faith, The loving 
Saviour, quick and eager to find his erring ones, 
meets them in the person of some faithful messen- 
ger, a Christian fellow-sailor or soldier or chaplain, 
and draws them to himself, it may be amid the ter- 
rors of the shipwreck or the battle-field. Shall the 
suddenness of their departure deprive him of his 
purchased rights, or kindred and friends of strong 
consolation? The water does not drown nor the 
bullet strike them without the knowledge and will 
of the living Christ. Quicker even than water 
drowns or a bullet flies the Holy Spirit may give 
life to an instructed soul. 

5. There is a class of the children of the cove- 
nant who live in sad estrangement from Christ till 
they are not only mature in years, but some of them 
past the meridian of life. They may be restrained 
by education, by conscience, by all the influences of 
Christian homes, from outbreaking wickedness, and 
vet have no knowledge of the plague of their own 
hearts. Or they may break loose from all re- 
straints, and, like the prodigal, follow the desires 



78 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

and devices of their own hearts until confronted by- 
death and compelled to consider their ways. 

Some years ago I was asked to visit a young 
woman, the child of a believing mother who had 
entered into rest. The daughter had attempted to 
take her own life under the impression that she had 
committed the sin that hath never forgiveness. 

She was caught in the very act and carefully 
guarded by day and night. When convinced that 
she had not committed the sin, the nature of which 
she did not know, and that it would be a most fool- 
ish, cowardly and wicked thing to take her own 
life, she gave me her promise that she would not 
attempt it again. And when told plainly that, al- 
though she had not committed that sin, she had 
sinned far more deeply than she knew, but not 
more deeply than the Saviour knew, she was en- 
abled to cast herself as she was upon him, and to 
accept his grace and blood, even himself, as all her 
salvation and all her desire. That was the begin- 
ning of a happy and useful Christian life which 
continues to this day. 

A vounff man who was carefully reared in a 
Christian home w 7 as impelled by an uncontrollable 
passion to go to sea. With the consent of his par- 
ents, he embarked on a whale-ship bound for the 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 79 

South Atlantic. The Bihle given by his mother, 
with the request that he would read it daily, was in 
his chest, and up to the time of which I have oc- 
casion to speak had been used but little if at all. 
He was a sailor among sailors, and lived as he 
pleased, though happily there was a Christian ship- 
mate in the crew. 

After a prosperous voyage the ship was about to' 
return to the North, and he was greatly elated with 
the near prospect of seeing his parents and revisit- 
ing the scenes and companions of his early years 
having tales of travel and adventure to tell. But 
in stowing down the oil when the sea was rough a 
sudden lurch of the vessel brought a cask of oil 
against him with such force that both his legs were 
crushed and he received other injuries that soon 
proved fatal. He knew from the first that he 
could not live. His Christian shipmate at once 
shared the deep concern he felt for his salvation. 
He was sent to the chest for the lon^-neglected 
Bible, and asked to read where it told how to get 
ready for death and heaven. He turned to the 
fifty-first Psalm, and, coming to the 10th verse, 
" Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a 
right spirit within me," he was requested to "hold 
there." "That is just what I want," said the 



80 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

dying sailor. " How shall I get it ?" " Pray God to 
give it for Christ's sake," was the answer. " Oh, 
yes/' the other exclaimed ; " Jesus is the Saviour." 
— "Shipmate, it is an awful thing to die, and I've 
got to go. Oh, if mother was here to tell me how 
to get ready !" and he trembled with emotion. 
After a short pause, in which lie seemed to be in 
deep thought, he said, " Do you know of any place 
where it is said that such sinners as I can be 
saved .?" The words, " This is a faithful saying, and 
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am 
chief," and " He is able to save them to the utter- 
most that come unto God by him, seeing he ever 
liveth to make intercession for them," were read. 
"That's plain," he said. "Now, if I only knew 
how to come to God !" " Come as a child to a 
father," was the answer. " How's that?" he asked. 
— " As the child feels that his father can help 
him in danger, so you are to feel that God cau help 
you now. And as the child trusts his father by 
fleeing to him, so you must trust Jesus by casting 
yourself upon him." He lay a little while en- 
goged in earnest pleading with God, as was evident 
from the few words that were overheard. Then 
the tears began to run down his face and a bright 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 81 

smile played like a sunbeam on his features. "He 
forgives me, and I shall be saved," he said with 
great sweetness of voice and manner. And as 
death came he said, " He's come ! lie's come /" 
"Who has come?" asked his shipmate. "Jesus 
has come," he whispered; and so his life here 
came to an end. 

I will not doubt that the compassionate Saviour 
revealed himself to this poor sinner in the little in- 
terval between the hurt and the dying. Surely our 
compassion is not greater than his. 

What reason can any one give for assuming that 
a man in such distressing circumstances, earnestly 
desiring to find the way of life, confessing him- 
self a sinner and pleading for pardon and accept- 
ance with God for Jesus' sake, must be deceived ? 
Better a thousand times believe that the Saviour 
is at the door ; that he lias arranged all the circum- 
stances for arresting and saving one that was lost ; 
that the Holy Spirit waits for some lover of the 
truth to give voice to his saving word ; that you 
are yourself the very person, if the providence of 
God our Saviour points to you ; and that holy an- 
gels are ready to carry the ransomed soul to the 
opening heavens. 

At the communion of the church of which I am 

6 



82 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

the senior pastor, held June 20, 1852, of the four- 
teen persons recognized as having been received by 
the Session, one was a young girl sixteen years old, 
now the devoted wife of a Christian minister and 
the mother of Christian children ; another was a 
woman more than seventy years of age. Although 
the widow of a deacon, she had never known real 
soul-trouble for her sins until a few weeks before. 
Looking from her window at an early hour one 
morning, she saw an aged couple whom she knew 
well on their way to a meeting that was to be held 
in our prayer-room. She instantly felt a deep con- 
cern for her salvation. On the next Lord's day 
she was in her place in the house of God. I knew 
nothing of her anxiety. The text was " Quench 
not the Spirit." She thought the sermon was pre- 
pared for her. After a fortnight of deep heart- 
searching and most agonizing conviction of sin, she 
found the Saviour, and great peace in believing. 
A few months later she fell in a street of New 
York, was carried to the house of a friend, and 
died, broken in body, but healed by the blood and 
touch of Christ, a joyful witness to the last of the 
power and preciousness of saving grace. 

I have mentioned her case because it shows the 
patience, the compassion and the fixed purpose with 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 83 

which the Saviour keeps watch over individual 
souls, and surpasses and surprises us in saving some 
whom we might pass by as hardly responsive to 
any influence of truth by which others are won to 
Christ. Death-bed repentances of younger persons 
are not more wonderful, and they are not limited to 
the children or descendants of Christian parents. 

I close this lecture by giving somewhat in detail 
an incident that I often recall with tender interest 
and cannot forget -while life lasts : 

Through the whole history of South Third 
Street Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., the 
prayer-meeting following the communion has been 
devoted especially to parents and their children, 
though we commonly include Sunday-school teach- 
ers and their scholars. 

Knowing that the Rev. Nathaniel Hewitt, D. D., 
pastor of the Presbyterian church in Bridgeport, 
Ct., was the guest of one of our elders who lived 
not far from the place of meeting, I hastened to 
the house and asked him to be present and make an 
address. He would not promise to do so, as he was 
in one of his melancholy moods. He told me to 
go on with the service, and that if he came it 
would be quite late. And, sure enough, he came in 
while I was speaking to the people. He was tall 



84 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

and large (I had almost said immense, for he had a 
most impressive presence) and deeply solemn, wear- 
ing on this occasion a fur muffler high around his 
neck and face, for the weather was cold. It was 
evident that he was deeply affected by the sight 
that met his eyes on entering the place — a large lec- 
ture-room full of parents and their offspring, teach- 
ers and their scholars. He did not decline the 
place that I at once offered him in the pulpit. 
Without removing overcoat or muffler he began 
with these very words : 

" This is a great subject, a very great subject — 
the Supremacy of God in the Family." Continu- 
ing, he said that the children of Christian house- 
holds sometimes pursued a violent course in rela- 
tion to God, and he pursued a violent course 
toward them. In illustration of this, he stated that 
during the war of 1812-15 he was pastor of a 
church in Plattsburgh on Lake Champlain. On 
one occasion General Macomb, who was in com- 
mand of the American forces stationed there, sent 
for him, that he might visit and instruct twenty- 
four soldiers who for serious offences had been tried 
and condemned to be shot. Six were to suffer the 
extreme penalty of the law the following day. The 
others, though they knew it not, would be reprieved. 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 85 

On his mournful errand he went to the guard- 
house, and from a list furnished him read the 
names of all the condemned men. All answered to 
their names and came forward with the exception 
of one, a man of high social position but of desper- 
ate character. He refused to leave his bunk. 
"With the others Mr. Hewitt spent several hours, 
reading suitable portions of Scripture, preaching 
the gospel and offering fervent prayer that they 
might be saved. Late in the night he left them, 
returning the next morning early to his work of 
mercy. As he tenderly addressed them man by 
man, not yet knowing who were to live and who 
to die, he came at last to a Scotchman named Alex- 
ander. This man welcomed Mr. Hewitt with joy, 
and at once related the experience of the night and, 
briefly, his career from boyhood. On retiring to 
his place of rest he had been confronted with the 
sins of his whole life. Sleep fled. He remembered 
with deepest sorrow and pain his wayward conduct 
from his youth. He was a child of : godly parents 
and many prayers. The very words of his father's 
intercessions in his behalf at the family altar came 
clearly to his mind. He recalled the answers to 
questions in the Shorter Catechism, and many por- 
tions of Scripture. From all the love and re- 



86 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

straints of his home he secretly fled at the a^e of 
thirteen years, and for more than twenty years he 
had been a wanderer and vagabond on the face of 
the earth and on the sea. At last he had been sud- 
denly and justly arrested by the strong arm of 
military authority and power. During the night 
just past he saw the utter ruin in which he was 
involved as a criminal under human law, a trans- 
gressor under God's law, and now condemned, with- 
out reprieve, to die an ignominious death ; for he had 
learned this. 

But the discovery of his helpless ruin was ac- 
companied by another, equally clear. He saw the 
way of life through Jesus Christ. He saw plainly 
that the glory of Christ's person and offices and 
work answered to the deformity and guilt of his 
person and life. He was looking unto Jesus, cling- 
ing to him as his Saviour, and awaiting without fear 
the moment of his execution. 

Mr. Hewitt was greatly moved in recognition of 
the matchless grace and power of the Saviour in 
relation to this sinful child of the covenant. Call- 
ing the other five men, who were at last made 
known to him as about to die, he gave them in- 
struction suited to their sad condition, and told them 
of the grace of God in Alexander's case, entreating 



SALVATION PROBABLE. 87 

them to trust in the same Saviour. While thus 
engaged he felt something: fall on his ear and neck, 
and, looking up to see what it was, he found one 
of the officers standing a little above him, weeping. 
And in that moment of silence the officer, tenderly 
addressing Alexander, begged him, if he could die 
peacefully and in hope of eternal life, to look up 
into his face and smile. He instantly gave the 
sign of inward peace and hope. Shortly after, the 
quick firing of a platoon of soldiers dismissed him, 
as Mr. Hewitt believed, to his Saviour's presence. 

Some years later Mr. Hewitt was traveling in 
Vermont, and, having occasion to pass through a 
toll-gate, was accosted by the keeper with the ques- 
tion, "Sir, were you not the minister at Platts- 
burg during the last war?" Learning that he 
was, the gate-keeper stated that he was one of the 
eighteen soldiers condemned to die, but reprieved, 
yet during all that awful night expecting to be shot 
in the morning. The instruction then given had 
been owned of God to his conversion. 

Have you a doubt, dear brethren, that salvation 
is possible on a death-bed ? and that in some cases 
it is probable, and even more than probable ? Im- 
perfect as the argument of this lecture has been, I 
sincerely hope that in your own ministry you may 



88 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-BOOM. 

have the joy of winning many souls, and that you 
may despair of none while life lasts. I can speak 
confidently of one thing : when you have taken the 
soul of another upon your soul shortly before it 
leaves the world, and thought of its worth, felt its 
danger, prayed for it, and, as you believe, by God's 
blessing upon the truth won it to Christ, the all- 
sufficient Saviour, you will let no opportunity pass 
to give help to every other soul under your care 
that is ready to perish. There is exquisite, sacred 
joy in being used to voice the words of the silent 
Holy Spirit, and to make known in this w r ay the 
present but unseen Saviour to one who needs noth- 
ing so much as to touch him by faith and be saved 
by his grace. 

" They that be wise shall shine as the brightness 
of the firmament; and they that turn many to 
righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." 



LECTURE III. 

Wrong treatment of tbe Sick an& %>vir\Q ; 
IRxgbt treatment of tbe Same ; Hses tbat 
ma^ be properly /IDa&e of tbeir jEjpert* 
ence* 



LECTURE III. 

WRONG TREATMENT OF THE SICK AND DYING. 

"I DO not speak to you, gentlemen, as if you were 
preparing to be trained nurses, though that is a 
noble calling, and you may often do good service 
by wise suggestions as to the proper care of the 
body. But you are chiefly to watch for souls as 
they who must give account. 

I refer mainly to the treatment of the sick and 
the dying, which, by God's blessing, may be their 
preparation for the life that remains to them here 
and the endless life of the future. The responsi- 
bility of their treatment is shared by physicians, 
ministers, kinsfolk, friends, and sometimes by paid 
nurses. 

In critical cases it may not be easy to decide 
which of the two, the body or the soul, shall have 
the first care. We can reach the soul with saving 
truth only through the body. The Holy Spirit 
may use truth long before learned to reach and save 
the soul when we seem to be cut off from all ac- 
cess to a dying person by reason of his bodily con- 

91 



92 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM, 

dition. If the sickness is manifestly unto death 
and the patient has given no sign of vital union to 
Christ, the physician and friends should interpose 
no obstacle to wise efforts for the instruction and 
salvation of one so soon to know the great things 
of the other life. Everything should be made sub- 
ordinate to this end. 

1. And here, first, I have a word to say about 
physicians in their relation to persons who are very 
ill and may be near to death. 

My own experience has been perhaps exception- 
ally pleasant, for the reason that I have been asso- 
ciated mainly with Christian men in the medical 
profession. They have welcomed me to fullest pos- 
sible co-operation with themselves. Nothing but a 
hindrance that I recognized as real has kept me 
from the presence of their patients. I shall never 
forget the deep concern felt by Dr. Mason, for- 
merly of Brooklyn, now, I have no doubt, in heaven, 
that one of his patients who had come to the bed 
of death might have a Christian hope before sub- 
mitting to a very dangerous operation. Dr. Mason 
assured me that he would not proceed until he was 
satisfied, through me, that the sufferer had found 
rest and peace in Christ. And he shared in the 
great joy when I was permitted to say to him that 



WRONG TREATMENT. 93 

I believed his patient was ready for life or for in- 
stant death as the result of the proposed operation. 
It was not fatal, but it brought no relief, and he 
soon fell asleep in Jesus. 

I cannot withhold here a reference to John Au- 
gustus McVicker, M. D., of New York City, who 
died in March, 1892, aged seventy-seven years. 
Dr. McVicker was for many years a devoted, 
earnest and leading member of St. George's Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church in Stuyvesant Square. 
Of him it was said that "besides his great skill 
as a physician for the body, he was also a born 
benefactor to the soul of every sufferer who came 
across his path. Morning, noon and night the 
Master's teachings were omnipotent with him." 

In only one instance do I remember to have felt 
it my duty to administer reproof to a physician 
who attempted to restrict my attentions to a dying 
patient whom I thoroughly knew and who earnestly 
desired frequent and short interviews w r ith me. 
The physician was a young man, and I told him 
plainly that I knew more of the sick-room than 
he did, and that I could not be controlled by what 
he had said. He had the good sense to apologize 
and to admit that he had made a mistake even with 
reference to his patient. 



94 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

It is clear enough that unless a physician knows 
a minister to be wise in dealing: with the sick — one 
who at once perceives what is helpful and what is 
hurtful — he must decline taking the responsibility 
of encouraging, or even permitting, his visits. He 
is waging a battle with disease. On the two sides 
in the conflict are life and death, and he is with the 
" life." Whether Christian or not, he ought to be 
intent on diagnosing the disease, watching symp- 
toms, administering remedies and noting* their ef- 
fects. He may therefore quite forget that he is 
dealing* with one who has vet to lav hold on eternal 
life while his grasp on the present life may be 
dailv growing; weaker. Or if he should recognize 
this sad condition of his patient, he may share a 
belief that is too common, that one who is distracted 
by the pains of the body and near to death is quite 
beyond the reach of salvation by faith in the Sa- 
viour. He ought to remember that what is impos- 
sible with men is possible with God ; that while the 
sufferer is passing beyond his skill and beyond all 
remedial agents for the help of his body, he has 
not passed beyond the reach of Him who gave life 
to the dead. He should therefore gladly co-operate 
with ministers or others who wisely seek to- point 
and lead the dying to Christ. 



WRONG TREATMENT. 95 

It is unspeakably sad when physicians who are 

in daily contact with the sick and dying have no 
care for human souls. After all, the healing of the 
body and its endless weal — for it shares the destiny 
of the soul — does not depend on human skill alone. 
It is said of Christ that " himself took our infirmi- 
ties and bore our sicknesses." It is not wise nor right 
to make nothing of Christ while ministering to the 
body. Of Asa, one of the kings of Judah, it is said, 
" In his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the 
physicians." Consequently the words follow imme- 
diately: "Asa slept with his fathers, and died in 
the one and fortieth year of his reign." I would not 
dare to reverse the order, putting the physician be- 
fore the Lord. Looking unto the Lord and send- 
ing for the physician with faithful regard for his 
counsel will ensure the best results. 

The physician in all ordinary cases has no more 
reason or right to exclude the minister, who seeks 
the salvation of the soul for eternity, and of the body 
with it, than has the minister to exclude the phy- 
sician, who aims to heal the body for the few and 
uncertain years appointed it for life on the earth. 
And it may be well to repeat the belief which I 
share with manv who are wise, that the word of 
God, and prayer ministered wisely, gently, sincere- 



96 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

ly by those who come to the sick in the name of 
the Lord, are among the most powerful of all rem- 
edial agencies. For nothing is more depressing to 
the sick than mental anguish, the tortures of an ac- 
cusing conscience and the consequent fear of dying 
apart from Christ. On the other hand, the breath- 
ing of peace into a troubled soul and the hope of 
eternal life through Jesus Christ have, in well-at- 
tested cases, so quickened the restorative powers of 
nature as to turn the tide of sickness and prove the 
best possible help to the physician in bringing his 
patients back to health. 

2. Pass now from physicians to others who are 
called to visit the sick and the dying. In our concern 
for their souls it is a great wrong to forget the 
weakness of their bodies. Often the powers of life 
are so far exhausted that anything more than the 
recital of an invitation or promise of the Scriptures 
and prayer in a few sentences, and all in a subdued 
voice, would be a cruelty and failure. 

Some are weaker even than this. They may not 
be able to speak, and yet they show by signs which 
can be understood that they are not beyond the pos- 
sibility of being reached by the word and Spirit of 
truth and life. To withhold a word in season and 
to refrain from offering audible prayer in such cases 



WRONG TREATMENT. 97 

is to take a responsibility from which a true winner 
of souls may well shrink. 

I have known instances where all the sensibilities of 
the body and the activities of the mind have seemed 
to be in suspense, and yet the sufferers were not 
known to have found rest in Christ. Not to have 
spoken plainly, as if sure of a hearing, would have 
been to lose the only opportunity likely to be given 
for seeking to save those who were ready to perish. 

When the way is clear for repeated visits and 
free and full conversation, there is such a thing as 
disregarding the laws of the mind itself by present- 
ing truth in other than the divine order and pro- 
portions. Haphazard work with the soul is worse 
than such work with the body, even as the life of 
the soul is more precious than the life of the body. 
We may mar if not thwart the work of the Holy 
Spirit by adopting methods not in keeping with 
those which he is wont to bless. As in revivals, so 
called, appeals to the emotions instead of instruction 
to the mind may produce effects which, are mistaken 
for conversion, yet which soon come to naught, so an 
unwise counselor may deal with one sick unto death* 
He may calm his fears and awaken his hopes by 
assuring him that all will be well with him at last ; 
that the heavenly Father, whose child he is, will 



98 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

not permit him to perish ; that if his loving dis- 
cipline does not complete its work in this life, it 
will be continued in the next until the most way- 
ward of his offspring have been saved. 

A young man whom on his death-bed I was ear- 
nestly trying to lead to Christ, when near the end 
of life startled me one day by saying plainly that 
he knew he " must go to hell " (that was his own 
language), but hoped he might escape at last, when 
he had suffered the just punishment of all his sins. 
I told him earnestly and with deep emotion that, 
dvino; with such a lie in his rirfit hand, he had no 
ground for hoping that he would ever be saved. 
To my great relief and joy, I found at my next 
visit that he had not only abandoned the strong and 
fatal delusion, but that he was rejoicing in the hope 
of forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ 
our Lord. 

A Universalist friend of mine, the able and pop- 
ular pastor of a neighboring church, thought I was 
cruel in the extreme in so dealing with the young 
man ; but the young man himself and his friends 
were most thankful for the counsel given him, and 
one of his dying wishes was gratified — that I might 
support his head when he passed away. 

3. The immediate kindred and friends of the 



WRONG TREATMENT. 99 

sick and dying have great responsibility for their 
treatraeut of their loved ones. 

Some utterly ignore the Bible and the Christian 
religion for themselves and families. Enjoying 
a thousand blessings of Christianity through life 
without discerning whence they come, they still, 
almost without exception, desire for themselves 
and kindred the rites of Christian burial, but, with 
strange and dark unbelief, they keep the teachers 
of religion from the rooms of their sick and dying 
friends. And yet even they load the caskets of 
their dead and the tables near them with floral 
crosses and crowns and harps, as if in solemn 
mockery of the realities of the gospel which they 
represent. 

One of the last funerals at which I officiated was 
that of a dock-loafer who fell overboard and was 
drowned, so far as we know, while plying his un- 
lawful craft and with all his sins upon him. Yet 
the pure flowers were made to publish him a saint. 

Others closely connected with the dying wait till 
the last moments of life, and then send tearful mes- 
sengers to some accessible minister to hurry to the 
sufferer's help, when he ought to have been called 
weeks before. Quite lately a case of this kind oc- 
curred near me. A young man was about to die. 



100 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

For some time he had felt that his days were num- 
bered, and had asked that a minister might be re- 
quested to call. He had seen one of his sisters fade 
away and die of the same disease. Happily, too, 
he had heard from her lips words of trust in the 
Saviour and of the hope of heaven with which she 
closed her short life and cheered her friends. He 
longed for a like experience, and repeated his re- 
quest day after day that some minister might be 
asked to call. For trivial reasons this simple re- 
quest was not granted. At last, however, and sud- 
denly, his family saw that he was dying. A sister 
was despatched in all haste for me. Bathed in 
tears, she begged me to come quickly. I went 
immediately with her, but before we reached the 
house her brother was dead. 

There is another class of persons, of whom I 
speak with great reluctance. They are members 
of Christian churches. From a perverted love and 
an erring judgment they keep from the death-room 
all suggestions of danger to their kindred soon to 
die, and all the consolations of religion, as if they 
could in that way exclude death itself. 

A letter of a Christian woman known to me 
from childhood long ago gave me the sad particu- 
lars of a case that greatly afflicted her at the time, 



WRONG TREATMENT. 101 

as the invalid was a very dear personal friend, to 
whom she would gladly have borne the tidings of 
salvation by Jesus Christ, but was not permitted to 
do so, on pain of being excluded from her presence 
and losing the friendship of the family. 

The suiferer was the oldest daughter in a house- 
hold of great wealth and refinement. Her parents 
were both members of an evangelical Christian 
church. They knew, for the physicians had told 
them, that there was not the least hope of her recov- 
ery. They were liberal, kind-hearted and tenderly 
devoted to their children. Upon this daughter they 
had bestowed the rarest opportunities of education. 
All that money could do to minister to the culture 
of her mind, the gratification of her tastes and her 
social enjoyment had been freely done. She had 
traveled widely in other lands, and had " come 
out," as the phrase goes, with utmost zest in the 
circles of wealth and fashion in the city where she 
dwelt. She was known in these circles as singular 
for the richness and beauty of the laces she wore, 
the value of her diamonds and other jewels and 
the general magnificence of her attire. 

At length a fatal and very distressing malady 
fastened itself upon her. A visible and sure de- 
cline began, lasting almost a year. Yet all those 



102 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

precious months were spent by her family in the 
most careful, systematic and successful concealment 
of the certainty that she must soon die. The phy- 
sicians, of whom she had several, were charged in no 
case to whisper her danger or make known the na- 
ture of her disease. She was deliberately and often 
assured that she would soon be able to endure the 
fatigue of foreign travel. Although daily declin- 
ing in strength and becoming more and more ema- 
ciated, she fondly believed that she would soon be 
well. When one of her physicians proposed and 
urged treatment that would leave a stain upon one 
of her arms for some time, she declined it because 
she wished soon to appear in society. 

This deception on the part of her friends and de- 
lusion on her own part continued to the last. When 
it was known that she might die any day or hour, and 
certainly could live but a short time, she was prom- 
ised presents of great value on her recovery, and 
was allowed to purchase costly jewels to be worn at 
some future day. 

She had Christian friends who yearned over her 
with inexpressible tenderness. One at least remon- 
strated w r ith the father, mother and sister. This 
friend begged the privilege of reading to the sufferer 
and making known to her her true condition. But 



WRONG TREATMENT. 103 

she was charged not to interfere with the plan of the 
family, and, though watching with the sick girl night 
after night, was never permitted to be with her alone. 
Even the pastor of the family w T as allowed to visit 
her only on condition that, he should not make known 
to her the secret of her near dissolution nor in any 
way awaken her fears. A very dear friend sent her 
a beautiful bouquet of flowers, with a note attached 
referring to their frailty and suggesting hers. The 
note was detached, and although the girl asked if one 
did not accompany the flowers, an evasive answer 
was given, and she was not allowed to see what 
her friend had sent. 

At last the hour of her death came. The fam- 
ily and two physicians were present, watching the 
flickering flame of life. In a despairing voice the 
dying one said to one of the physicians, " I believe 
I am dying." As there was no response, she gasped 
out the words once more : " Doctor, I believe — I — 
am — dying." He simply answered, "I understand 
you." Not even then was a word of helpful truth 
or earnest prayer uttered in her hearing, and with 
the sacred name, " O Lord ! O Lord l" on her dy- 
ing lips, she ceased to breathe. 

Who of us could bear the responsibility of treat- 
ing child, sister, friend, parishioner, in this way for 



104 TEE PASTOR IN TEE SICK-ROOM. 

months in succession ? 1 think any pastor would 
be justified in declining to visit a dying person 
under such restrictions. No wonder that the room 
where this young woman died was closed to all 
other occupants, and that parents and friends had 
great sorrow for many years. 

This case does not stand alone. Many reverse 
the order of the two values, putting the natural life 
above the eternal, and sinking the latter out of 
view. 

A Christian physician to whom I related the 
facts given above said that a case similar to it had 
lately come to his own knowledge. A father whose 
onlv daughter was on her death-bed, with but a 
few days to live, carefully concealed the fact 
from her. Friends were encouraged to send her 
presents at his expense, and he said plainly that he 
would shoot any one who made known to her the 
certainty that she could live but a short time. 

There is one other kind of wrong treatment of 
the sick and dying that should be noticed with 
strong disapproval. I mean the multiplying of 
teachers, the obtrusion upon them of many coun- 
selors, and especially if they are of different schools 
of theology and of strong sectarian habits of mind 
and heart. 



WRONG TREATMENT. 105 

In all critical cases many teachers distract and 
weary the sufferers. There is danger of having 
discordant counsels given. And the impression 
may be made that many guides are needed, as if 
reliance were placed rather upon the guides than 
upon Christ, who said, " I am the Way and the 
Truth and the Life." Even two are not always 
better than one, unless they have an understanding 
that they will support each other in uttering the same 
truths and in trying to arrest and hold attention by 
such concurrence of testimony, while agreeing to- 
gether in asking the heavenly Father, in Christ's 
name, for the salvation of the person or persons 
whom they earnestly desire to win to Christ. 

Unwise friends are in danger of going from one 
extreme to another — from doing nothing to doing 
too much. Seized at last with the idea that one 
whom they love is in peril of his life and is not 
prepared for the great change, they attach too 
much importance to the number of teachers, and 
not enough to a wise choice of one who knows 
the sick-room well and is faithful and competent 
in seeking to win souls. Happy the families that 
are instructed in these great matters, and that are 
blessed with wise Christian physicians and pastors. 

In passing to the second part of our subject, 



106 



THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-BOOM. 



viz. The Bight Treatment of the Sick and Dying, 
I need hardly say that great wisdom and sincere 
love for the Saviour and the souls of men are 
always needed. With sanctified common sense 
one will be very sure quickly to perceive what is 
best and what should be avoided. 

If the sufferers are Christians and are verv weak, 
a few well-chosen words of Scripture and a brief 
prayer with good cheer from a loving, sympathetic 
and happy heart may be all-sufficient, and will do 
good like a medicine. 

For an aged disciple of rare intelligence and con- 
secration, belonging to a different denomination 
from my own, but under my pastoral care, I pre- 
pared from day to day, at her owm request, brief 
meditations on suitable texts of Scripture. She 
was too weak to endure conversation or to meditate 
profitably by herself, but she could joyfully read 
a short page of devout thought suggested by differ- 
ent portions of God's word. 

I have often been in the rooms of dying saints 
who could bear only a few whispered words. A 
pastor or friend refined and sensitive w r ill study 
and observe all the proprieties of the sick-room, 
and will find that sometimes silence is better than 
speech. Sometimes, too, his mission will be best 



RIGHT TREATMENT. 107 

accomplished by merely leaving his name with the 
family, with the assurance for the sick one that he 
is remembered in prayer by his pastor. At times, 
however, it may be inexpedient to leave any mes- 
sage for the sick one who is so low. Then all that 
the pastor can do will be to call upon the family. 

But I am to speak chiefly of the right treatment 
of the sick and dying who are without the good 
hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ. 

1. A first duty, I think, is to assist in forming 
a correct public sentiment in regard to the appalling 
danger of those who fall sick in this sad condition. 
Let the tidings spread from pulpit to pulpit, from 
house to house, from suppliant to suppliant* Al- 
ready there is such a sentiment in reference to 
persons brought into sudden peril of their bodily 
lives. A thrill of horror pervades a whole com- 
munity when it is known that a house in which 
there are sleepers is on fire or that a child is lost. 
When I lived in Princeton and was a student in the 
seminary, a little boy about seven years old, who 
had been playing in a lumber-yard till a late hour 
in the afternoon, did not return home and could 
not be found. He was traced as far on the road 
to Lawrenceville as a cottage where he had asked 
for a drink. Near it bars in the fence revealed 



108 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

a pathway into the fields and clumps of trees. 
Later it was found that he had passed through 
these bars. The bells of the seminary and college 
sounded the alarm. Professors and students and 
citizens by the hundred came together, were or- 
ganized into searching parties and went out with 
lanterns far into the chilly night. Some of us 
continued the search until the break of day. . At 
last the poor child was found by a bird-dog. He 
was lying in the deep grass, unconscious, chilled 
to the bone by the low temperature of the night, 
and would probably have slept the sleep of death 
if left to himself. He was borne to his humble 
home in the strong: arms of a man no wav related 
to him as a kinsman. I have never forgotten the 
thrill of nerve and heart when the tidings rang 
out through the still air of the morning: " He is 
found ! He is found, and is living but unconscious" 
Ao;ain the bells were runs!:. Men of all ages and 
ranks and characters greeted each other with 
utmost joy. Tears were on many faces in the street 
and in scores of homes. Every mother felt the 
gladness of a personal deliverance. And yet that 
little boy was unknown to most of the men who 
made long and painful search for him, and not 
one in a hundred of the men and women who 



RIGHT TREATMENT. 109 

wept for gladness when lie was found had any 
personal knowledge of the child. 

There is no deep feeling like this wheu it is 
known that one who has no hope in Christ has 
fallen sick and is in danger of death. Even in 
such cases the chief anxiety seems to be for the life 
of the body. The sickness is not taken to heart 
by many persons as calling for special and per- 
sistent effort for the salvation of the soul. We 
reproach ourselves for want of feeling. We can 
explain the general indifference only on the mourn- 
ful theory that in preparation for meeting God 
safely one need not be greatly concerned about 
being born again, with faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ and holiness at least in its germ. 

I think we should do what we can, from the 
pulpit and the press and by visitation among the 
people committed to our care, to change this apathy 
to rational concern. If one falls dangerously 
sick, who, it is feared, has made no preparation for 
death, the fact should be known by those of his 
kinsfolk and acquaintances who believe in the 
power of prayer. The longest life is well spent 
only when it is a true preparation for the life 
beyond. But here one is in great peril, who, it is 
believed, has yet to take the first step heavenward. 



110 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

How appalling ! But God waits to be gracious. 
Christ is able to save to the uttermost all who come 
unto God by him. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit 
of Truth, the Author and Interpreter of the word 
which his faithful messengers earnestly make 
known. He can waken the dead and lead them 
to Christ ; therefore we cherish hope to the last. 
And this we ought to do all the more fondly if 
we find ourselves and others as intensely aroused 
as when the bodily life of child or adult is brought 
into sudden peril. 

2. A duty that cannot be too strongly stated 
devolves upon those who are nearest the sufferers 
in family relations. 

These have the sick completely in their power. 
Under a false view of the relation of means to 
ends — faith and prayer to sickness — some are 
known to refuse all other agencies for healing. 
I believe that this folly, to call it by no harsher 
name, has cost many precious lives. " Faith 
cure," "Christian science" and " Mind cure " may 
be classed together. I mention them in this con- 
nection only to say with stronger emphasis that 
those who have very sick persons in their families 
in all ordinary cases should early call to their help 
a competent physician, and while carefully obeying 



RIGHT TREATMENT. Ill 

his directions should co-operate with him to the 
utmost of their power. They should be sure not 
to work against him purposely or by neglect. If 
the sickness falls upon some poor kinsman or neigh- 
bor, let them use their kind offices to secure a phy- 
sician. It seems almost unnecessary to add that they 
should be sure of competence and fidelity in the 
person who is called to guide the sick in the way 
of life. 

3. It is sometimes a perplexing question, Shall 
minister or physician or any one else inform those 
who are fatally sick that they cannot recover? 

If, beyond all reasonable doubt, the dying are 
ready for the great change, it is of little conse- 
quence whether they are told or not. There may, 
however, be some matters that they would wish to 
arrange if they knew that life was about to close — 
some farewell word they might desire to speak, or 
some testimony for Christ to give to the living. 
These are reasons for telling them frankly yet 
gently that the end is near. 

If they are not Christians, and are flattering 
themselves that they will yet recover while all 
others believe that they can live but a short time, 
let them know, as best you can, that life is waning 
and eternity nearino;. I can recall no instance, 



112 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

in a pastorate of more than forty-two years, in 
which a person unprepared for death, and yet not- 
far from it, could have been wisely deprived of 
the knowledge of the fact. Such information 
wisely and tenderly given is of great use in rous- 
ing the careless to the necessity of preparing for 
the change and giving earnest heed to instruction 
and prayer. I have never known it to destroy or 
depress the powers of life. 

" Conversation does not hurt me/' said a young 
Irishman to Dr. Spencer in one of his last inter- 
views ; " and it would be no matter, you know, if 
it did. I am soon to go. Earth has done with 
me. The grave lifts up her voice to claim me. I 
am preparing to say, ' Yes, I come.' " Most of 
the sick will be found to share in this feeling. 
If we have dealt openly with them, we cannot 
w T ell help showing them that our chief concern is 
for their salvation. They will see that we make 
everything subordinate to this, and will learn at 
last, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, that 
the gospel they have neglected through life after 
all is the best gift of God to sinful men, and that 
all its blessings are as free to them as the service 
we gladly render or as the air they breathe. 

I was once urged bv a father whom I well 



RIGHT TREATMENT. 113 

knew to see his dying son. He had been fatally 
hurt, and died a few days later. I went with the 
father at once, but told him by the way that I 
could take the responsibility of caring for his son 
only on two conditions : one, that I should have 
full charge of his instruction ; and the other, that 
I should decide when to tell him that his hurt 
was fatal. The father gave his consent with tears, 
fearing that his son could not bear to learn that 
his end was near. But the father had reason, be- 
fore the end, to rejoice that he consented. 

4. In most cases of fatal sickness the responsi- 
bility of being the religious counselor falls, or 
should fall, upon one person. The duty of the 
family is partially discharged in making the selec- 
tion of one believed to be competent for the sacred 
duty. It may be one of their own number, or some 
friend of the sufferer, or the pastor of the congre- 
gation to which the family belongs. In either case 
the duties of the one chosen are very serious, and 
should be well understood. 

(1) He ought to be fully convinced that he is 
called in the providence of God, as well as by the 
choice of his fellows, to the solemn duty. Other- 
wise he may have serious misgivings, and at criti- 
cal moments, when important decisions must be 

8 



114 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

promptly made, wish that another were in his 
place. If he is the pastor of the household, he 
need have little doubt regarding his duty. And yet 
a devoted Christian minister, who is now vener- 
able for his years and his excellence of character, 
told me a few days ago that, having been called 
as a young pastor to visit a dying person in his 
congregation, he was greatly alarmed, and hardly 
knew what to say or do, wishing earnestly that he 
might be relieved from the responsibility of guid- 
ing; a soul so near to the other world. 

(2) It is very important to see the sufferer alone 
sometimes, if not always. He may wish to make 
statements about himself that he cannot get his 
own consent to make in the presence of the family 
or any one but his religious teacher. When one 
has lived for years without revealing thoughts and 
feelings on religious subjects, there is great reluct- 
ance to speak of them except confidentially to some 
one who is accepted as a religious teacher. This 
is true of persons in health when awakened to ask 
about the way of life. Every pastor knows that 
inquirers are apt to seek counsel privately, and not 
of any in their own families. When, by the grace 
of God, salvation comes to the anxious soul in 
health or sickness, the reasons for privacy no 



EIGHT TREATMENT. 115 

longer exist, but until that time one responsible for 
telling a dying person what to do to be saved 
should share in the desire to be without the 
embarrassment of having others present. 

(3) Let a thorough and prayerful study of every 
case be made, that instruction may be wisely given. 
Better trust the care of the body to physicians who 
are careless in their diagnosis and treatment, or to 
those of different schools of practice, than immortal 
souls, as yet unsaved, to teachers who make no 
careful inquiry regarding heredity, temperament, 
idiosyncrasy, history, character, manner of life, 
if these are not already known. It is true that 
"as in water face answereth to face, so the heart 
of man to man ;" yet is it equally true that the 
dying may differ in many respects from each 
other, and should be well known by those who are 
called to give them counsel. Unlike in age and 
intelligence, they may be still more unlike in 
regard to the knowledge and treatment of Bible 
truth, which, so far as we know-, is the Holy 
Spirit's only instrument in saving adult sinners. 

(4) In most cases frequent and short visits are 
better than infrequent and long ones. They are 
less exhausting to the sick ; they are the best proof 
of sincere love and deep concern ; they win confi- 



116 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

dence, and are most helpful to arouse what may 
sometimes be a perverted or slumbering conscience; 
and they serve to fix salutary impressions of vital 
truths on what may come to be an enfeebled under- 
standing and failing heart. And, besides all this, 
if there are evidences of the birth from above, 
there will be need of instruction in the great 
truths of God's word. Jesus said, " Sanctify them 
through thy truth : thy word is truth." 

(5) One cannot always enter a sick-room when 
he would gladly do it. A wise and affectionate 
letter sent through the mail, and then another and 
another, may open a door otherwise closed, and 
prove to be the beginning of a blessed ministry. 
And after the door is open and one has freest 
entrance, letters may be more helpful than inter- 
views only, for they can be read and often re-read, 
until the truths they contain are fixed in the mind. 

A youth who was known to me to be sinking 
under pulmonary disease said to his father, in 
reference to myself, " Ask him to call, but request 
him to say nothing about religion and not to pray, 
for that will make me think I am going to die." 

I called by invitation, chatted a few moments 
on commonplace subjects and said good-bye, taking 
the young man at his word in regard to the subjects 



EIGHT TREATMENT. 117 

of " religion " and " prayer." But I determined 
to win my way to his sick-room as a messenger of 
Christ, and, having sent one or two letters to him 
by mail, I was soon asked to call. I found my 
letters lying on a stand close beside him, with his 
Bible there too. The letters had been read more 
than once, and, finding that he prized them greatly, 
I continued to write for sixty consecutive days, 
making frequent visits also. The last letter was 
written and read on the day of his death. They 
are now bound, and treasured by the family as the 
counsel given to one who was very dear to many 
hearts as he passed from death unto life, and came, 
before he left us, to the glad confession of Christ, 
and at the last, as we believe, to the joyful depart- 
ure to be with Christ. 

But whether one speaks or writes to the sick, it- 
should be always remembered that the word of 
God is the instrument by which the Holy Spirit 
puts forth his saving power in " convincing and 
converting sinners and building them up in holi- 
ness and comfort through faith unto salvation." 
Let one think what that word has been and is to 
himself, and in preparation for his work let him 
saturate his own soul with it. Then he will speak 
out of the abundance of his heart. Reading or 



118 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

repeating it, he may wisely give the sense in words 
easy to be understood. If the meaning is clear, 
let him rely consciously on the Spirit of Truth to 
interpret and apply it to the soul. Often it is wise 
to select passages by book and chapter and verse, 
and mark them for others to read at the bedside. 
It is important, too, in the use of Scripture to 
have regard to the divine order and proportions of 
truth. The saving work of the Holy Spirit has 
two principal parts. " When he is come," said 
Jesus, " he shall reprove the world of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment." The reasons 
follow. This is one part. " He shall glorify me, 
for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto 
you." This is the other. It is equally important, 
for " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but 
by the Holy Ghost." It belongs to him to reveal 
Christ's divine person, his perfect character, his sa- 
cred offices, his redemptive work and his willingness 
and ability "to save to the uttermost all that come 
unto God by him." Nor should it be thought 
enough to point the dying sinner to the divine Sa- 
viour as if he were only far away in the heavens. 
His glorified humanity does not limit his deity. 
As he dwells in the heart of the believer by faith, 
it is his privilege to urge the unsaved one to come 



RIGHT TREATMENT. 119 

to the Saviour, to believe that he is present, and, 
as Dr. James W. Alexander wrote of him, " the 
most accessible being in the universe." It is our 
duty and privilege to win souls to Christ, to take 
them with ourselves to his presence and make 
intercession for them, giving them to understand 
that under this ministration of the Spirit they do 
not need to think of him as coming down out of 
the heavens to enlighten them in the knowledge 
of the truth, but rather as passing from the heart 
of the believer to their hearts. 

(6) It is helpful to have knowledge of Christian 
hymnology for use in the sick-room. If one can 
sing the sweet truths of the gospel in " psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs," so much the better; 
but care should be taken not to excite mere emo- 
tion before the mind is well supplied with Bible 
truths. 

How precious are the hymns beginning with the 
words "Come, humble sinner, in whose breast;" 
"I'll go to Jesus though my sins;" ."Just as I am, 
without one plea ;" " Jesus, lover of my soul ;" 
"My faith looks up to thee," and many another 
in common use ! 

(7) It is a great help to those who are feeling 
after Christ on a dying bed to be told how others 



120 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

during their last days have found peace in believ- 
ing, and have witnessed a raod confession before 
leaving the world. And it gives them great con- 
fidence in one who has the responsibility of in- 
structing them to learn from his own lips what 
the Lord has done for his soul. It is wise, there- 
fore, in some cases to tell the story of one's early 
faith and, it may be, later conflicts, for the Adver- 
sary is often very cruel and aggressive in dealing 
with those who have but a short time to live. 

(8) Having given heed to the important matters 
already noticed, it remains for one to cast himself 
in his helplessness upon the God of all grace for 
direction, support and results. Let him never lose 
sight of the sovereignty and supremacy of God 
in saving sinners. It is his prerogative to have 
mercy upon whom he will have mercy ; to send his 
saving word and renewing Spirit to the heart of 
the sufferer about to die, or to leave him in the 
flarkness of unbelief and death. Let no one com- 
plain of this, but, with sweet and conscious acqui- 
escence in the unknown will of the Lord of life, 
go on with his humble and beneficent work, giving 
line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little 
and there a little of precious truth. Let it be 
adapted to a case that has been carefully studied; 



RIGHT TREATMENT. 121 

and it should never be forgotten that in the build- 
ins; of character for eternity, as in the building of 
the temple-walls in troublous times, the work is 
not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of 
the Lord. One may well rouse himself to intelli- 
gent, persistent and hopeful effort by reflecting 
that the salvation of a soul, always impossible to 
man, is possible to God in the most adverse cir- 
cumstances ; that " man's extremity is God's op- 
portunity," and that when effected the salvation 
brings glory to God, produces joy in heaven, gives 
life eternal to an immortal soul, with large reward 
here and hereafter to the soul's winner. 

For these and other reasons let the minister 
avail himself of all possible help in his work. 
The word of God is powerless unless accompanied 
by the Holy Spirit. He is given in answer to the 
prayer of faith. In this, as in many other import- 
ant matters, " two are better than one." Jesus 
said, " If two of you shall agree on . earth as 
touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be 
done for them of my Father which is in heaven." 
The limitations of asking are not hard to find. 
We act under a divine commission in seeking the 
salvation of souls : therefore we mav assure our- 
selves that Christ is himself interested in what so 



122 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

deeply concerns us. But we may not dictate while 
we pray without ceasing. Pray in secret, by the 
wayside, in the family. We may take the dying 
and lay them at the feet of Jesus by the faith that 
makes the transaction very real ; remembering 
that one borne of four was laid at his feet in 
Palestine, and that when " he saw their faith, he 
said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." 
Therefore let others come into the secret of the 
dying sinner's need and peril, and secure their 
prayers. Let intercessions of faith be offered 
where Christians meet for prayer, and let the rep- 
resentatives of many homes bear the burden of the 
imperiled soul away with them, until from many 
closets and family altars fervent supplications shall 
be offered to the Hearer of prayer. If they fail 
to secure the very thing reverently asked for, they 
cannot fail to bring large benediction to those who 
offer them. A Christian Church is an organized 
part of the great kingdom of priests. It is graced 
with authority and power to make intercession in 
the name of Christ and to offer the sacrifice of 
praise and thanksgiving. And every believer may 
be an Israelite indeed, one of the princes of the 
earth, having power to prevail with God and men. 
Meetings for prayer have new interest when they 



USES. 123 

are thus connected with the saving of souls that 
are ready to perish. The suppliants come to 
expect triumphs of grace ; and as from time to 
time, in the history of individual churches, tidings 
come of salvation found even on the bed of death, 
there will be not only joy in many hearts, but a 
new consciousness of power for all church work, 
and a firmer faith that heaven and earth are very 
near each other and service here a preparation for 
service there. 

It remains now only to notice briefly some of the 
uses that may be wisdy made of death-bed experiences. 

1. There is great variety in results. Personally, 
I wish that services for the burial of the dead might 
be greatly simplified and expenses reduced. 

Moreover, if anything is to be said of the depart- 
ed, it were better reserved, I think, to be spoken 
at one of the regular services of the house of God. 
Saving impressions are rarely made on the minds 
and hearts of unsaved persons who flock to fune- 
rals but neglect sanctuaries. True; indeed, " it is 
better to go to the house of mourning than to go to 
the house of feasting ; for that is the end of all 
men : and the living will lay it to his heart." 
But the living who lay it to heart are chiefly those 
who already have life in Christ. 



124 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

2. Only in cases that are quite exceptional can 
a minister wisely speak plainly of the dead who 
have wasted life and seemingly died in their sins. 
And then it should be only with the approval of 
the kindred and for the benefit of the living. 

3. If the deceased indulged the hope of salva- 
tion only in their last sickness, there is need of 
careful discrimination in what may be said of 
them. 

In some cases the evidences of repentance and 
the acceptance of Christ as the Saviour may be 
most convincing and inspiring to many witnesses. 
Joy and praise and wonder fill all hearts. There 
is an opportunity to magnify the grace of God 
before the living and to instruct and comfort 
mourners. 

4. We ought to keep in mind life-long character, 
fixed habits, education, employments, associations. 
We may not make light of the effects of disease 
and of remedies on the action of the mind- and the 
words of the. mouth. Nor should we lose sight of 
lineage near and remote, ancestral faith and inter- 
cessions or the lack of them. Pravers not less than 
alms are for a memorial before God. A Chris- 
tian lineage is better than a kingly one. The 
accumulated intercessions of the pious for many 



USES. 125 

generations are a power in the kingdom of God's 
grace. He does not forget them, nor should we. 
It may be wise to give prominence to this trutli in 
speaking of the dead who, even in their last days, 
come to the glad recognition of it, and call in 
faith and repentance upon the God of their fathers 
and mothers. The streets of villages and cities 
resound with the joy of those who have found 
even a child that was lost. Nothing should hinder 
the thanksgiving of those who have reason to be- 
lieve that a soul dead in trespasses and sins has 
been made alive in Christ even on a death-bed. 

The Spirit of Truth has preserved for us the 
written account of the change in the dying robber 
and his quick entrance into paradise with Jesus 
himself. The same Spirit may be asked to direct 
his servants, who desire to know what he will have 
them do, in helping the living through the experi- 
ences of those who have passed away. 

5. Records of conversions, the deceased being no 
longer present with the living, are very different 
from records of remarkable conversions published 
to the world by the converts themselves or by 
others while the subjects of them are still living. 
One cannot but tremble for professed converts 
when, shortly after their change, from their own 



126 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-BOOM. 

lips or pens or through the agency of others the 
story of their conversion is published. It is not 
every mature Christian who could hear from the 
pulpit or read in papers secular or religious the 
story of his new life in Christ and suffer no harm. 

But the case is quite different when the converts 
have left the world. If their experience has been 
either usual or exceptional, throwing strong light 
upon God's methods of dealing with souls, as they 
cannot be hurt by its publication, it may be our 
duty to give it to the world not only for the com- 
fort of the sorrowing, but for the good of others. 

Nor should we pay too much regard to the 
danger of the irreligious perverting such narra- 
tives. Nothing escapes perversion. The goodness 
of God, the gospel of the grace of God, the loving 
invitations and commands of God, — all these make 
their appeal to multitudes in vain. God's ambas- 
sadors, sent to publish the tidings and conditions 
of peace, become a savor of life unto life to some, 
but of death unto death to others, yet equally a 
sweet savor of God in them that are saved and in 
them that perish. Yet is it blessed for them to de- 
liver their message, and leave results with God. 

A plain statement of what has been done in 
behalf of the deceased, of the intense concern felt 



USES. 127 

by many for their salvation, and of the individual 
and associated efforts to win their souls is a revela- 
tion to the world of the great danger of all who 
are not in Christ, of the nature of Christianity and 
of what sinners must do to be saved. 

The Church itself is edified by accounts of con- 
versions occurring in the last days of life, and the 
methods God owns in securing them. They help 
young Christians. They comfort aged saints. 
They are suggestive to those who have little if any 
experience in leading souls to Christ. They illus- 
trate the value of the household covenant in many 
cases. They bear witness to the power of inter- 
cessory prayer. They encourage pastors to make 
record of facts relating to the salvation of souls, 
which, if not set down at the time, are lost to 
memory, but, preserved, become precious. 

Brethren, my work is done. Imperfect I know 
it has been. I bring it hither and lay it on your 
hearts. You hope to live and work for the Master 
and for souls. Whether here or in other lands, 
your field will be the world — and the dying world, 
for which Christ died. Do not despair of any soul 
while life lasts. Even if reason seems to be 
dethroned or the soul lost to consciousness, let not 
even this hinder your confidence in God and in the 



128 THE PASTOR IN THE SICK-ROOM. 

power of his grace. " I am he that liveth and was 
dead ; and, behold, I am alive for ever more, 
Amen, and have the keys of hades and of death. " 
These are words of the glorified Christ to the apos- 
tle John. No door for their departure out of this 
life is opened to the dying without his will. Call 
upon him in faith and submission in their behalf, 
and though you may not know results with certain- 
ty in this life, you will wait calmly, more than sat- 
isfied to have him do all his holy pleasure. 

I am thankful to the faculty and to you, the 
students, for the privilege of bringing to this be- 
loved place, some of the fruits of pastoral services 
continued through many years. More than thirty 
years ago I thought of asking to be allowed to 
speak to the students then present, but I was timid 
and did not venture. These later years have added 
to the strength of my conviction that to despair of 
the sick and dying and leave them without special 
solicitude and effort for their salvation is to wrong 
one's own soul as well as theirs, and to dishonor 
the gracious Saviour who said to the dying robber, 
" To-day shall thou be with me in paradise" 



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